Letters to the Editor
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Congratulating them for appearing on Montel? C'mon!
You understand, don't you, that their appearance on Montel will be sandwiched between a woman with her face built upside-down and a guy who can fart the National Anthem?
It wouldn't matter if TEAR appeared on the comparatively upscale Oprah, because they'd be noticed less than the boxes of genuine Tiffany chocolates hidden under the audience's seats.
The talk-show hosts - all of them - are circus acts. This would do less for their cause than distributing booklets to junior high and high schools and having trained counselors from the organization talking about the issue. It isn't glamorous. It isn't show-bizzy. But it would get far more information out to the people who need it.
Now, of course, all educators are frauds who don't give a damn about their students, any more than Geraldo cares about the Klansmen he regularly interviews. Which is why the use of outside agencies - such as the rape counselors who are already active in almost every state of the union (sorry, Tennesee) - people who are actually confronting the problem on a daily basis - would be the people to contact the students.
If TEAR distributed their flyers and discussion guides on their web site as PDF Acrobat documents, they could be downloaded by anyone in the nation and Xeroxed at the school for the cost of paper and toner. That's where public support would come in; collecting enough money from door-to-door contributions to buy a ream or two of paper for their local schools for producing these flyers. God knows the schools don't have enough paper for daily work, let alone a frivolous use like flyers to help their female students with rape.
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Was there nothing better to write about?
With all the things that are going on in the world today, you choose to write about the TEAR organization and their appearance on Montel. Are you perhaps getting paid as their advertiser?
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wow
What a totally worthwhile organization! I firmly suspect that most teenage relationships are abusive in one form or another...when I look back on my own highschool relationships and the manners in which both I and my girlfriends behaved I cringe. I suspect it has something to do with both parties trying to figure out their sexual and gendered identities and how they relate to relationships at probably the worst possible time.
Sure Montel isn't exactly top-rung, but any publicity for such an organization is a good thing.
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Enough of this Idiotic Euphemism!
What the hell is an "abusive relationship"?
Does a relationship swing a fist? Fire a gun? Plunge a dagger? Land a kick?
I recall back to the horrid O.J. thing when that ridiculous term was bandied about. Gee, if it was the relationship that was abusive, maybe it should have been put on trial for butchering Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman. The outcome couldn't have been any worse.
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Get someone else to break his legs
That's really what you're looking for, isn't it? For $50 I'm sure you could get someone to fuck him up but good. Problem goes away.
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Montel
Tomreedtoon- Why is it wrong for an organization to go on a Nationally Syndicated talk show? Jeez.
And besides, Montel isn't of the face-built upside down (that's Maury Povich-king of the Freaks) variety of talk show. (Or at least he wasn't the last time I watched his show.)
There are plenty of men and women who stay at home who have teenage kids who might benefit from seeing a segment on the Organization. It's not for the friggin kids; it's for their parents.
Besides, You aren't the demographic for Montel. Don't think his target audience are such idiots they can't actually learn something from a talk show.
C'mon, tom. Aren't you being a bit like a mermaid-cup swilling television critic whom you despise for her elitism?
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Because I agree with you
that it is important to publicize this kind of information and increase awareness, I think it is only fair to point out some statistics you did not mention and correct a subtle change in subject you made at the end of the piece. TEAR, from their own website, cites these stats:
-Boys have reported that 27% of girls started the violence in their relationships.4
-In 100 domestic violence situations, approximately 40 cases involve violence by women against men.
-Survey research suggest that women who are assaulted are 9 times more likely to report to police and 5 times more likely to tell a friend/relative than men who are assaulted by their wives.
Combating domestic violence, in all its forms, is a goal that we all should be working towards. Although I have yet to see the Montell piece (and so do not know who was represented on the show), TEAR is made up of men and women seeking to end domestic violence against men and women, so please offer congratulations to both sexes for their work. When and where could I hope to see such statistics publicized? Since there is no Dudesheet and this is clearly the space for all gender related news (see the article on men's health), please do not selectively cite, especially when the result is clearly counter to goal of the very subject of the article.