Dottie Lamb How Can We Forget The Victim Analysis

Michael Wyatt
Professor Wasmund
English 121
1 October 2014
How Can We Forget the Victim?
A Response to Dottie Lamb
My parents divorced from each other for the second and final time when I was just 8 years old. This led to my younger sisters and I being raised by our mother who, over the span of the rest of our childhood, was in and out of abusive relationships with several men before eventually remarrying the a man who showed little to no regard for the physical or emotional well-being of either my mother or my sisters and I as children. There were countless nights I stayed awake attempting to comfort my little sisters who were crying hysterically upstairs huddled together in a closet with me while our new step father physically beat our mother downstairs while berating her with verbal insults and threats that would make any grown adult

She builds credibility of her argument by quoting an author with over 20 years of experience in the Vermont judiciary, William M. Boardman. "Hobart has shown little capacity for shame, except perhaps for trying to shame the victim." Boardman elaborates on this by saying “Hobart’s response was to re-rape the child bureaucratically by ignoring evidence and finding the alleged rapists not guilty. It was a sham of an administrative adjudication that failed to meet even a shadow of fairness, competence, or even intellectual plausibility. Hobart stands by its dishonest decision. Case closed.” Boardman’s harsh account of what happened to this girl expands on what Lamm is attempting to say happens at institutions nationwide. The reader isn’t just taking her word for at face value, he message is substantiated by being corroborated with the views of another highly respected author and pillar of our community. By building this bridge with the reader her argument is likely given more credence by most