Too many Tragedies
I don't know if you remember this or not. It was in late Spring of 2001, when our world was still "normal," or really, I should say, Pre-9/11. Because time for me has been divided into things that happened before 9/11 and post 9/11. Someone will mention something from 2000, my first response is usually, "Wow, that was before 9/11." But that's a story for another post.
It was late Spring of 2001 and the headline across most front pages in Texas that day was 5 children found dead, drowned by their mother. In the trials and press conferences and sounds bites that were too follow, Andrea Yates became a warning to all new mothers suffering from Post-Partum depression, "Don't let this happen to you." And while others came out to testify on her behalf saying she wasn't in her right mind, the jury believed she did, and sentenced her to life in prison.
It was taken to appeal, naturally, and it was determined that a key witness for the prosecution, an expert wittness, used a plot from a television series, Law & Order, as evidence that this sort of thing happens and people know what they are doing. It was later determined that it was based on a fictional television show, and in the appeal ending yesterday, the sentencing was revoked and Andrea Yates was found not guilty by reasons of insanity and sent to a mental health facility. There she will undergo treatment and if she gets better, she will be released.
Here is an account of what Mrs. Yates did to her children: *warning - explicit material*
Now, I'm not telling you this to show you that Mrs. Yates is not crazy. I'm telling you this because I have a concern. There were warning signs leading up to the events on June 20th, 2001, and I haven't seen anyone bring any of those people into court or charge them with negligence.
According to About.com, a very interesting site that profiles lots of interesting things, Andrea was in and out of pyschiatric facilities since 1999. She was put on anti-pyschotic medicine in July of that year and actually started to improve. She became more social, was interacting with her children, and overall seemed at peace. But in May of 2000, against the advice of their doctors, Rusty Yates convinced Andrea that it was time to have another baby, and she became pregnant and went off of the medicine. After the baby was born, she held herself together and suffered minimal depression, but after the death of her father on March 12, 2001, she went down hill quickly. She went back to her old habits, which included self-mutliation, refusal to eat or drink, refusal to feed her children, and frantic religious behavior. She was hospitalized again and her pyschatrist, a Dr. Mohammed Saeed, treated her briefly with Haldol (the anti-pyschotic) and then discontinued it. He said she did not seem pyschotic. He released her after only ten days and sent her home with the advice, "Think positive thoughts."
Two days later Andrea drowned her five children because she thought she was raising them poorly and they had a better chance of getting into heaven as children than as grown-ups.
That's the history immediately leading up to the tragedy. The history before that, during the early years of the Yates's marriage, was something I was unaware of.
Andrea and Rusty were married in 1993. They had their first four children fairly early on. All boys. Rusty got a job in Florida and they all moved and lived in a trailer home. Another job moved them back to Houston, where Rusty, wanting to live cheap according to About.com, bought a renovated bus for the family of 6 to live in. I don't know what their financial situation was like, but it would seem to me you could do a little better than a bus. Maybe I'm wrong. Either way, Andrea started listening to a traveling minister by the name of Michael Woroniecki. I didn't know about this man before, but glory of the internet, Wickipedia had a lot of information. This is his central message:
I'm not entirely certain why he uses that one particular verse and not any others from the gospel, like "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son so that whoever shall believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3:16. The cornerstone of all Christian faith.
Coincidentally, many of Woroniecki's followers have attempted suicide and laid blame at his door. Regarding Andrea Yates's case specifically, Woroniecki came up into media spotlight because she was one of his adament followers.
Woroniecki takes no responsibility for Andrea and her problems. He even claimed in 2002 that she had murdered her children not because of him or religion, but because she hated her husband. There was never any evidence displayed to that end.
Woroniecki, to this day is still preaching and sadly his daughters are in on it:
I don't know how you counteract the work of people such as this. The Bible is riddled with love, not anguish and hopelessness. And preaching fear is the attempt by the weak for control. Woroniecki had Andrea under a viel of fear. She looked to him as a spritiual guide, and he told her she was doomed to hell because she wasn't living an actively proseltizing lifestyle. She believed this so much that she tried to kill herself, and when that didn't work, she killed her children.
There are two victims here, Andrea Yates and her children. If attempting suicide over and over again isn't a cry for help I don't know what is. And after telling many different doctors her symptoms (including refusing to feed her children because she thought they were gluttonice) no one thought perhaps this was an unsafe enviornment.
Her husband didn't think this was an unsafe enviornment?
Mr. Yates didn't kill his children, neither did the doctors and neither did Woroniecki. But Mr. Yates did want to have more children, as many children as God allowed. And against the advice of doctors he pressured his wife into pregnancy, and after it was over and she was ill again, he let her be. He took her to a doctor and presumably he trusted their advice. But because of all their combined negligence, their refusal to take responsibility for the well-fare of the family, 5 children died.
This was a tragedy of mammoth proportions. I don't know if the blame can rest on one set of shoulders. What I do know is, that those children are safely away now, and resting in heaven with no pain.
It was late Spring of 2001 and the headline across most front pages in Texas that day was 5 children found dead, drowned by their mother. In the trials and press conferences and sounds bites that were too follow, Andrea Yates became a warning to all new mothers suffering from Post-Partum depression, "Don't let this happen to you." And while others came out to testify on her behalf saying she wasn't in her right mind, the jury believed she did, and sentenced her to life in prison.
It was taken to appeal, naturally, and it was determined that a key witness for the prosecution, an expert wittness, used a plot from a television series, Law & Order, as evidence that this sort of thing happens and people know what they are doing. It was later determined that it was based on a fictional television show, and in the appeal ending yesterday, the sentencing was revoked and Andrea Yates was found not guilty by reasons of insanity and sent to a mental health facility. There she will undergo treatment and if she gets better, she will be released.
Here is an account of what Mrs. Yates did to her children: *warning - explicit material*
Rusty {ed: her husband} left for work and before his mother arrived to help, Andrea began to put into action the thoughts that had consumed her for two years.
Andrea filled the tub with water and beginning with Paul, she systematically drowned the three youngest boys, then placed them on her bed and covered them. Mary was left floating in the tub. The last child alive was the first born, seven-year-old Noah. He asked his mother what was wrong with Mary, then turned and ran away. Andrea caught up with him and as he screamed, she dragged him and forced him into the tub next to Mary's floating body. He fought desperately, coming up for air twice, but Andrea held him down until he was dead. Leaving Noah in the tub, she brought Mary to the bed and laid her in the arms of her brothers.
Now, I'm not telling you this to show you that Mrs. Yates is not crazy. I'm telling you this because I have a concern. There were warning signs leading up to the events on June 20th, 2001, and I haven't seen anyone bring any of those people into court or charge them with negligence.
According to About.com, a very interesting site that profiles lots of interesting things, Andrea was in and out of pyschiatric facilities since 1999. She was put on anti-pyschotic medicine in July of that year and actually started to improve. She became more social, was interacting with her children, and overall seemed at peace. But in May of 2000, against the advice of their doctors, Rusty Yates convinced Andrea that it was time to have another baby, and she became pregnant and went off of the medicine. After the baby was born, she held herself together and suffered minimal depression, but after the death of her father on March 12, 2001, she went down hill quickly. She went back to her old habits, which included self-mutliation, refusal to eat or drink, refusal to feed her children, and frantic religious behavior. She was hospitalized again and her pyschatrist, a Dr. Mohammed Saeed, treated her briefly with Haldol (the anti-pyschotic) and then discontinued it. He said she did not seem pyschotic. He released her after only ten days and sent her home with the advice, "Think positive thoughts."
Two days later Andrea drowned her five children because she thought she was raising them poorly and they had a better chance of getting into heaven as children than as grown-ups.
That's the history immediately leading up to the tragedy. The history before that, during the early years of the Yates's marriage, was something I was unaware of.
Andrea and Rusty were married in 1993. They had their first four children fairly early on. All boys. Rusty got a job in Florida and they all moved and lived in a trailer home. Another job moved them back to Houston, where Rusty, wanting to live cheap according to About.com, bought a renovated bus for the family of 6 to live in. I don't know what their financial situation was like, but it would seem to me you could do a little better than a bus. Maybe I'm wrong. Either way, Andrea started listening to a traveling minister by the name of Michael Woroniecki. I didn't know about this man before, but glory of the internet, Wickipedia had a lot of information. This is his central message:
The central message Woroniecki has carried mainly to college campuses throughout the United States since 1980 is that all Christian churches are antichrist preaching a "false and polluted twentieth century gospel" which he believes has no redemptive power. Consequently, the only people on earth that he believes are saved are himself, his wife and his six children. When people ask him if anyone else is saved, Woroniecki often replies quoting Jesus from the gospels, "As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be at the coming of the Son of Man" (a time in which only eight persons were saved in an ark from a worldwide deluge, he says, emphasis on "eight.") If anyone else happens to be saved, he has told his disciples, he just hasn't met them yet.
I'm not entirely certain why he uses that one particular verse and not any others from the gospel, like "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son so that whoever shall believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3:16. The cornerstone of all Christian faith.
Coincidentally, many of Woroniecki's followers have attempted suicide and laid blame at his door. Regarding Andrea Yates's case specifically, Woroniecki came up into media spotlight because she was one of his adament followers.
Letters from the Woroniecki family were found by investigative author Suzy Spencer that berated Andrea over her unrighteous standing before God. His 1995 video taught that it was better for parents to commit suicide than cause their offspring to stumble and go to hell. Only two months after receiving the harsh letters from the Woroniecki's, Andrea was hospitalized twice for two separate suicide attempts.
Woroniecki takes no responsibility for Andrea and her problems. He even claimed in 2002 that she had murdered her children not because of him or religion, but because she hated her husband. There was never any evidence displayed to that end.
Woroniecki, to this day is still preaching and sadly his daughters are in on it:
"You are on the wrong path, and there is nothing you can do about it... God's message is not unconditional love. It's unrelenting anguish and hopelessness!" Message preached by two daughters of Mr. Woroniecki as reported by the editorial
staff of The Collegian--student newspaper of the University of Richmond, Sep. 29, 2005.
I don't know how you counteract the work of people such as this. The Bible is riddled with love, not anguish and hopelessness. And preaching fear is the attempt by the weak for control. Woroniecki had Andrea under a viel of fear. She looked to him as a spritiual guide, and he told her she was doomed to hell because she wasn't living an actively proseltizing lifestyle. She believed this so much that she tried to kill herself, and when that didn't work, she killed her children.
There are two victims here, Andrea Yates and her children. If attempting suicide over and over again isn't a cry for help I don't know what is. And after telling many different doctors her symptoms (including refusing to feed her children because she thought they were gluttonice) no one thought perhaps this was an unsafe enviornment.
Her husband didn't think this was an unsafe enviornment?
Mr. Yates didn't kill his children, neither did the doctors and neither did Woroniecki. But Mr. Yates did want to have more children, as many children as God allowed. And against the advice of doctors he pressured his wife into pregnancy, and after it was over and she was ill again, he let her be. He took her to a doctor and presumably he trusted their advice. But because of all their combined negligence, their refusal to take responsibility for the well-fare of the family, 5 children died.
This was a tragedy of mammoth proportions. I don't know if the blame can rest on one set of shoulders. What I do know is, that those children are safely away now, and resting in heaven with no pain.
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