Letters to the Editor
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Typical custody warfare
Alec Baldwin's outburst, though very shocking, is a typical, very sad aspect of custody battles in the United States. There are several ways to look at this incident. We could simply decide that Baldwin is an uncouth, ugly and mean person who has proved he has no right to be around his daughter. Unfortunately, for Baldwin, this may be the typical reaction from the public.
There is another way to view it, however. It is plain to see that this man cares enough about his child to try to maintain contact with her in spite of her obvious desire not to talk to him...for whatever reasons. How could a daughter not want to talk to her father? Again, we are not privy. But there are many instances of divorced mothers poisoning the minds of their children against the father she has grown to despise. The courts have to contend all too often with parents who accuse each other of horrible things in order to gain custody. Parents get so involved in the warfare they forget about the well-being of their offspring and the children get drawn into these battles, some of them taking sides. Usually, manipulative parents eventually lose control of their children after a period of time and the child, or children, can turn on the parent who manipulated them in the first place.
Whatever applies in this case is unknown, but we are left to interpret this custody conflict because of the public nature of it. I can only feel that Baldwin was unjustly dealt a terrific blow when his recorded telephone message was released to the world. It is difficult to believe that the mother is completely innocent in this matter and I tend to give Baldwin a break for this horrible breach of his privacy, not simply for him but for his child. No, he should not have talked that way...it is inconceivable that he would call his daughter a pig...it is unbelievable that a grown man would resort to such immature language, but we all have a dark side and say things we regret. No one is perfect! I hope Baldwin can get it together. Optimistically speaking, it is possible this awful incident can somehow help him to grow. It is going to take some hefty soul searching to achieve that end, but he can do it. This is what I believe.