Counseling in Chicago with Bill Martin, LCSW

Examining the religious right wing activism defending catholic clergy sex abusers and the response of the church, it’s pretty easy to understand why Joe Paterno didn’t do anything to protect the children being raped by Jerry Sandusky.

He’s Joe Paterno and probably feels entitled to do whatever he wants, just like Bill Donohue, Bishop Finn of Kansas City, the catholic pope, and the entire catholic church hierarchy.
Bill Donohue, Executive Director of Catholic League Center for Religious and Civil Rights,

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The numbers of children abused in America each year are staggering.

The United States Department of Health and Human Services estimates 879,000 children were victims of child maltreatment in 2000. Of this total, 63% of the children were neglected, 19% were physically abused, 10% were sexually abused and 8% were psychologically abused.

I think we all have to agree it’s easier to ignore or deny the estimate that 87,900 children may be sexually abused in our country each year.

How do we wrap our minds around these very high numbers of children abused and neglected?

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We are truly living in a remarkable era.

Truth telling via internet media like Facebook, blogging, and  other ways to transmit words and images has brought revolutionary change to places like Egypt, Tunisia and now Libya, one of the most brutal dictatorships in the world.

Truth to power. May it bring us more peace, justice and democracy all over the world.

Many of the major movie critics identified several flaws in the movie, The Reader.  The flaws included being hard to believe, reductionist (the death of millions of Jews to the issue of literacy), morally ambiguous, and character development lacking depth and sharpness.
Read them here.

Ok, making the symbolism easy, Pat Bowlen and Josh McDaniels represent the shallow, narcissistic leaders in our world who have been exposed as the “emperors without clothes!”

I have really enjoyed this story. Just as McDaniels and Bowlen have been trying to manipulate Jay Cutler, treating him slightly less than a piece of property,

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Damage control. It usually starts with finding ways to impugn the character of whoever is causing you trouble.  Ad Hominem Logic. I have talked about his before…it doesn’t matter what someone says, they are bad, so whatever they say is bad too. And don’t do it yourself. Have someone else spread the rumors…enter Stefan Fatsis.
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Darth Vader ranks third on the American Film Institutes Heroes and Villain list and is well known to most adults and children as an icon of evil.
Whats less known is Darth’s history as Anakin Skywalker and� his transformation from loving husband and Jedi hero to evil lord of the dark side of the Force.
Looking at his history helps us understand the powerful impact of trauma and loss in the lives of human beings.

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Darth calls out to Luke to join him and the evil empire. When Luke refuses, Darth allows him to fall, knowing the fall will not kill him. Symbolically, this is important for both Luke and Darth.

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Look at the struggle between Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker. On the surface it looks like a fight to the death between father and son. Symbolically, their struggle can be understood to be about aspects of themselves that have either been lost or have not yet been awakened. For Darth, his humanity, all but lost. For Luke, accessing his developing power.
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As I said in my last post, Luke becomes more powerful as he integrates all the symbolic personality parts, represented by each and every character in Star Wars. Luke is merely the protagonist in the story. He meets, intensely connects, and symbolically integrates parts of every other character. This helps him gain power on his way to be a more mature, integrated human being with clarity of purpose, mission and action in the world.

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