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About The Georgia bulletin (Atlanta) 1963-current | View Entire Issue (July 5, 1984)
The<1Georgia< Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta Vol. 22 No. 25 Thursday, July 5, 1984 $10.00 Per Year Child-Abusers They Are Normal People Just Trying To Survive ORDAINED A PRIEST ~ James Schillinger prostrated before the altar in the Cathedral of Christ the King last Saturday during the ceremony of ordination. Also included are (L to R) Mr. William Lux, assistant choir director, Monsignor John McDonough, Archbishop Thomas A. Donnellan and Father E. Peter Ludden. Father Schillinger has been assigned to St. John Vianney parish in Lithia Springs. BY MARY BETH MARINO (Last in a Series) It’s tough being a parent today. It’s even tougher being a child. When you ask yourself how on earth a parent could possibly abuse their child, you probably have a vivid picture in mind of what that parent is like. Your first mental impression might portray a “sickie” who hates children and tolerates not even the smallest offense from a child. The father could be a loser who is uneducated and incapable of holding a job. The mother, a shall ow, dependent woman, feels putting up with this The Lady And Her Five-Acre Goat Farm BY THEA JARVIS For as long as she can remember, Julie West has had a natural affinity for animals. Growing up in Decatur, she remembers dreaming of one day shepherding her own live menagerie. At St. Thomas More School, where she was a student, she vividly recalls the primer stories that took the ubiquitous Dick and Jane to grandmother’s farm. By the time she was 15, she had cajoled her parents into adding a horse to their city lot. They gave in, absolutely certain that the hard work and responsibility attached to animal husbandry would dampen her youthful enthusiasm. “Twenty-one years later, I still have the same horse,” Julie laughs, stroking Shamrock’s mane and surveying the five-acre spread just off Lawrenceville Highway in DeKalb County where she raises Nubian goats. Westwinds Farm - “fresh eggs, milk, cheese” - is a true fish out of water in the sea of subdivisions and traffic tangles that surround it. But to Julie West, with her spanking white overalls and perennial smile, it is a dream come true. She discovered the property, hidden at the bottom of a narrow, winding street, in 1972, just six months after her first husband died as the result of an automobile accident. The land, an overgrown mangle of junk cars and old tires, included a solid stone house dating to 1935 that had been added to over the years. The whole package was a challenge Julie took on easily, despite her recent loss and the care of a two-year-old son. "I saw a real future for it,” she says of the ugly duckling homestead most friends and family had discouraged her from buying. “I’ve always been a frustrated farmer.” When she met David West, a structural engineer whose only brush with nature had been a plastic philodendron gracing a dark corner of his bachelor apartment, she had been living on the farm for four years. They turned out to be kindred spirits. David and Julie married eight years ago, and from that time on their farming enterprise took off in new and untried directions. “He knew how important it was to me,” Julie says with affection. “He really took to it.” It was David who ambled off to cattle auctions in search of cows and pigs, encouraging Julie to follow her natural bent. He implemented the ideas Julie entertained in her actively agricultural head, turning out milking stands and animal sheds that eased the daily workings of the farm. When a lost cow successfully defeated the combined strength of local police and fire departments, Julie and David together took a fresh look at their livestock. “There was $1000 worth of meat running up and down Lawrenceville Highway,” Julie grimaces. The petulant beast turned the tide in the present direction! The Wests got rid of their cows and set about learning to breed goats. Today, their little farm is a pleasant cross between hobby and business. It is also a real lifesaver for area families needing an alternative milk source for special diets and allergy-related illnesses. Because there are no licensed grade A goat dairies in Georgia, goat milk products are hard to come by. Fresh goat milk is available only at farms where goats are bred and raised. Westwinds, with its mini-herd of one buck and nine does, falls into this category, and is especially attractive because of its close-in location. Julie is currently milking two of her goats twice a day, often assisted by her oldest son Michael, now 14, and his brothers Tavis, 7, and Egan, 5. One doe is nursing two orphaned kids and the other females are in a rest period, readying for growth or new birth. (Continued on page 10) spouse is easier than trying to survive alone. She could even make excuses for the husband, saying the child constantly breeds trouble. You might even picture the home as being filthy, beer cans or bottles strewn all over the place, junk food in the refrigerator or cupboards and consistently violent arguments ending up in a free-for-all brawl of physical abuse. Unfortunately, this dramatic vision of abusive parents is probably the most distorted view of what actually perpetrates child abuse. Rather, picture this. A family of six. One girl and three boys, Mom and Dad. Dad is the successful vice-president of a local consulting firm. He’s very good at what he does, but the job creates a great deal of pressure having to meet staggering quotas at the end of each quarter. It means traveling a great deal and lots of overtime work. But basically, he loves his position and feels he does a good job of financially supporting his family. He would like to spend more time at home with his family, but . .. Mom is the ideal. All Mother’s Day cards describe her perfectly. She’s the spark plug in the family. She keeps house, is the taxi driver, nurse and team mother. She volunteers three times a week at her church and collects money in the neighborhood for a charitable organization. She attends P.T.A. meetings and is proud of her children’s accomplish ments in school and sports. She has felt sufficiently secure in raising her toddlers to their present teenage stage. (Continued on pages 6 & 7) Julie West and her friends
