Newspaper Page Text
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
