|
|
 |
Reader Feedback on "Secrets and Lies"
Get your facts Straight they were at the time of being arrested twenty six and twenty three not at the time of the beginning of the assaults.
Ruth says she was six — maybe younger — when her older brothers, Johnny E. Byler, twenty-six, and Eli E. Byler, twenty-three, first sexually assaulted her. Over the next decade, they raped Ruth more than 200 times in the washrooms, barns and bedrooms of the farmhouses in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania where they lived. At least once, her stepfather, seventy-seven-year-old William Kempf, attacked her as well, knocking her unconscious during an argument.
Not necessarily..as a matter of fact it was not the reason we moved that many times and we lived more like in Five different communities.
Like eight or nine different church districts.
The family lived in three separate church districts in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin while Ruth "You don't fight hard enough," her mother said. "And you don't pray hard enough."
My brother that left was older not younger.Matter of fact a couple of years older.
A non-Amish neighbor, seventy-year-old Rachel Wrobel, is a thoughtful woman who has a framed Grant Wood quote on her kitchen wall that reads, "All the good ideas I ever had came to me while I was milking a cow." She tells me how she stopped by the Kempfs' place in July to buy worms for a fishing expedition. Ruth was outside, dressed in her black cloak and bonnet, standing next to a clothesline. She told Rachel that her younger brother, Rudy, had run away.
"It was the first time I met her," says Wrobel, "and she said her stepdad beat her brother repeatedly. I remember she said, 'repeatedly.' That girl cried. Tears just flowed down her cheeks. I said, 'Why didn't you report it to the authorities?' She said, 'We don't do that.'"
--MAB
02/23 |
Oct 3, 2006
While Googlizing the “5 dead in Amish school siege .. Milk truck driver shoots girls, then kills self”, front page in METRO New York, Tuesday, October 3, 2006 [www.metro.us), I stumbled on your www.nerve.com Posted 07.02.2004. http://www.nerve.com/dispatches/mckelvey/secretsandlies/
FEEDBACK: Ignorance of law is no excuse. Yet, Justice worldwide, more so in US, makes constitutionally protected in Halls of Justice and thus in homes, sweet homes, and, yes, even on the street corner human sex-acts even worse than what happened in your story. Just one decision makes this feedback mighty cool for you to publish it.
During Nov 2, 1989 Oral Arguments in DeShaney v. Winnebago County, reported at 489 US 189, the world’s most powerful, omnipotently feared and thus respected, US Supreme Court Chief Justice Rehnquist [God Bless Him…May his Soul Rest in Peace] reaffirmed the sovereign law on sex-acts in US where freedom rings as if there is no tomorrow:
“… if two policemen see a rape [violation of women] and watch it just for their own amusement, [it is] no violation of the [sacred] constitution. … (laughter) …”
--LKJ
10/03 |
This article was very interesting. I'm a reporter with the Intelligencer Journal, the morning daily newspaper in Lancaster, PA. I learned about this case as I researched abuse and the way the church deals with it or doesn't deal with it, as the case may be. I dealt with marital abuse as well as child abuse, highlighting the church's ineffectiveness and its propensity to reabuse because of its beliefs that women are to submit and children are to obey, while men are forgiven (aka let off the hook). If you have any interest in reading the 4-part series, I'll be glad to send it to you. My e-mail is lespenshade@lnpnews.com
--lje
07/15 |
it was informative,i thought shit like that went on .
it is a crime any time and ashame it gets swept under the rug
charles overgaard
--cko
07/12 |
I am a therapiist that works with victims of sexual abuse and sexual offenders. A man by the name of David Yoder has been attempting to get senators and others to pay attention to this problem. He and his wife are also ex-Amish and he has a website set up about his own abuse experiences as well as those of his wife. All of us need to assist these children and get assistance for their perpetratos as well. I would request as many people as possible support Mr. Yoder. His website is amishabuse.com
--Pjsr
07/10 |
did you read the piece? English is what the amish call non-amish.
--
07/06 |
English kids?
--
07/06 |
The headline draws attention to the fact that there IS sex abuse in Amish country. Sure, the piece is about how this specific culture makes it all the more difficult to report and uncover, but the hit of the headline seems to be claiming (in case any one of us did not know) it does happen. But the tragedy of the piece is that it exploits the girl at the center; this is only just happening to her right now and what she says is heartbreaking. To show her heartbreak seems exploitative. She's been living through a trainwreck, and now you've shown her at her most raw: just out, lost, and not aware, really, of what she's saying, how it sounds, and how she'll feel about it later.
--
07/06 |
the point isn't that sex abuse happens in amish country. the point is that it's such an insular community that the abuse goes unreported and it's hard for authorities to investigate and prosecute. the community encourages people to stay within itself, so abused amish kids have more trouble getting help than abused English kids.
--duh
07/06 |
A sad and insightful report. I hope all individuals have an opportunity to leave an oppressed and abusive community to live a life of choices.
I have returned from Operation Iraq Freedom last 12 May 2004. I spent 12 months living in the Kuwait desert in a tent and an out house. I trained as a truck driver 88M in the National Guard. In another reality, I was a Registered Nurse who cared for sick, dying and the demented. I fit perfectly in Kuwait as the company medical coordinator for 266 souls of a Combat Het transportation company. I tracked the sick and the wounded of my company. I scheduled ortho, dental, eye, pelvic, pshchiatric, cardiac appointments. The Guard are an aged population. I have grandfathers and grandmothers in their 50's driving trucks in Iraq in 120'F heat and performing drive by shootings. The tough old farts endured our year in country. A few pooped out ie. cardiac insufficency. The military is desperate for troops. It was don't ask or don't tell. My orders were to mobilize as many soldiers as possible. I tried to med board 7 soldiers that were unfit for duty. I was told " At Ease" The 91st Unit adminstrator said, " they will limp on to the plane and limp off the plane" It was a waste of resources. Why send troops already broken to become worse. Only one of the seven finised the one year deployment. I was a RN trained to care for people not to destroy them.
When my company arrived to Camp Victory, Kuwait on May 17, 2003. We heard news of rapes on camp. I thought that it was from the third world nationals. But it was our own troops raping our own women. It was pretty fucked up. The mayor's cell had a standing order that all females be escourted after 18:OO. The lesbians of my company were armed with knives and personal guns. They were meaner and tougher than me. I worried about the 20 year old female soldiers.
To my knowledge and here say, the sex within my company was consensual. Hey John, are you with so and so. He replied, "I have been replaced". Adultery ran rampant. The leadership chose not to charge soldirs with sexual misconduct. I sent one soldier back for endermitrois. She came back to Kuwait to see her married boy friend. I read her report. She had an ectopic pregnacy. It is about ten male soldiers to one female soldiers ratio in Iraq from my opinion. We call them desert queens. Even the ugly ones get lucky. At Camp Doha, the Marble Palace, We would stare at the women in bikinis. My friend called it eye fucking. I was coming off guard tower watch at 2 AM. I and another were driving the hummer back to our tents. I see a couple with red,white and blue blanket holding hands running between the tents. Is that so and so. I am too tired to investigate.
In April 2004, One of our sister companies were going home to the US. The entire flight was stopped for an alleged rape. Criminal Investigation Division from Camp Doha came to investigate. The story goes she was drunk and was sexually assulted at the farewell party from Kuwait. CFLCC order no alcohol in Kuwait. When the investigation was complete, she was embarrassed at her sounds of passion that her soldiers heard that she claimed rape. The sex was consensual. The flight was released to return to the US. A lot of crazy shit will continue in Kuwait and Iraq. Any time the two sexes coexist intimately will result in polictically nuclear fallout. It contaminates everything. Only the water of truth and full disclosure will remove the stain of secrecy and denial. Thank You for listening to my story.
--TYL
07/04 |
to the one who said " don't see what's so shocking about any of this." I applaud you. Why society believes that the Amish, or any other so called "sect of society" is immune to sexual deviation makes me crazy. We are human, and all humans are infallable to the same diseases of the mind and body. Does tucking yourself in a corner of rural america and creating a gate around your community make you exempt? We as Americans only delve as deep as our conscience allows.
--SEP
07/04 |
I applaud the girl for speaking out against her beothers and stepfather.
Tony
--am
07/03 |
I don't see what's so shocking about any of this. All is means is that the Amish families are no different from the rest of us.
--
07/02 |
when iread this i was shocked and dissmayed to say the least that this kind of abuse was allowed to take place whithin those families and the comunity until that girl was willing to stand up and tell what ad been done to her and who had done it i hope it inspires others to say no you cant do that to me or anybody else
--dhl
07/02 |
send feedback on "Secrets and Lies"
back to "Secrets and Lies" |
|
|
