Francie Billotti-Wood and her three children are dead. So is her husband, Christopher Wood. This is a tragedy that never should have happened.Despondent over excessive debts, Christopher Wood shot and then nearly decapitated his family before turning a gun on himself.
The man who killed his wife and three young children and then himself in a tiny town in northwest Maryland last week was at least $460,000 in debt and owned a Florida house that was in foreclosure, according to property records and police.Regular readers know that when tragedies like this happen I often suggest the man simply kill himself and leave his family alone. If a man is so unhappy (for whatever reason) and he sees no way out, why does his family have to pay such a high price?
In one of six notes he left scattered about the rented house in Middletown, Christopher Wood, 34, described his financial hardships and his struggle with depression and anxiety -- factors that investigators believe contributed to the killings. [...]
At a news conference, authorities released a raft of details about the killings, describing a scene more ghastly than what had been known since the bodies were discovered Saturday morning.
According to investigators, Francie Billotti-Wood, 33, and the couple's 5-year-old son, Chandler, were each shot twice in the head with a .25-caliber handgun. Chandler's younger brother, 4-year-old Gavin, was shot three times; daughter Fiona, 2, was shot once.
After they were shot, their throats were slashed almost to the point of decapitation, officials said. Wood killed himself with a shotgun. [...]
Several experts said slayings of entire families by fathers and husbands are often associated with economic hardship. Some men get to the point where it becomes impossible to tell family members that they're going to lose the house or that the kids can't go to college, said Richard J. Gelles, dean of the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy and Practice and an expert on family violence.
"If you have built your identity around that you're the breadwinner, you're the backbone, and that becomes unglued, it undermines your sense of self," Gelles said.
The particulars of this case point to the need for change in at least three areas:
1) We MUST have affordable and readily available mental health care in this country. People under this much stress need help.
2) We MUST change our culture to embrace feminism. Rigidly defined roles contributed to why Christopher Wood must have felt he could not admit to his family his "failure" to provide for them.
3) We MUST change the culture of greed that fueled our current economic meltdown. Greed on the part of CEO's, bankers, and Wall Street investors whose actions have this country on the brink of another great depression.
This may seem oversimplified, but we must start somewhere to end violence against women and children.
2 comments:
While it is easy to condemn the "culture of greed", what is the alternative? A culture of control and fear?
“History is crystal clear”, as Milton Friedman pointed out, that only a culture of self interest has provided a society the opportunity to progress. If that is not the case, provide an example? Are Cuba or North Korea better off after fifty or sixty years of government social engineering and tyranny? Is Sweden and the rest of western Europe better off now as welfare states where there is little or no incentive to work harder or produce more?
It is hard to believe that in Maryland, where the tragedy occurred there was no available counseling service available. It is possible that counseling may have been involved, based upon the limited information that we have.
In light of the news of David Kellermann’s apparent suicide, the chief financial officer of Freddie Mac, the misguided goodwill of the federal government’s requirements that people be given loans that they may not have the ability to repay appears to have tragic consequences for many individuals and their families.
I'm not suggesting government regulation, I'm suggesting self regulation. How much is enough? Some of the financial deals were made for quick/easy profit, with seemingly no consideration for the possible long term impact.
Cuba and North Korea are easy examples to toss out, but what about other countries? I've been told that Norway is a pretty decent place to live, and don't they have socialized medical care?
There are a number of things to discuss regarding mental health care. First, not every insurance carrier covers it -- and if they do it's often only a percentage of the costs once you have met your deductable amount. But it's more than just the cost. I think it's also a cultural thing -- particularly for men. It doesn't appear that Christopher Woods could admit to his wife that he might need help. Did he consider it a weakness? Maybe David Kellermann faced the same circumstances. Is seeking help an admission of failure to these men, so death seems like the only solution?
In my opinion that is where embracing feminism could be beneficial to both women and men. It could lift the burden that some men feel.
As I said at the end of my post, these suggestions may be oversimplified, but as I was posting this last night the local news was reporting yet another instance of a husband who killed his family before turning the gun on himself. As the economy gets worse I fear we will be hearing even more reports like this.
BAC
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