Some Murder Mysteries Inspire Historic Change

In a previous post, I talked about the new fascination with "true crime," and I think it's only fair here to acknowledge the positive side to our lurid interest. Some murders not only inspire fictional bestsellers and highly rated television shows, they generate lasting legal and social change. For example, the public outcry after the 1964 New York murder of Kitty Genovese, stabbed to death in front of her apartment while 37 witnesses watched and did not intervene or call police, led to the development of the current 911 system. After the 1981 Florida abduction and murder of 6-year-old Adam Walsh, his parents John and Reve Walsh established the pioneer Adam Walsh Outreach Center for Missing Children, launching a national movement that led to the Missing Children's Act to add missing children to the FBI's National Crime Information Center database in 1982 and creation of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children in 1984. When 12-year-old Polly Klaas was kidnapped from her home in Petaluma, CA, in 1993, and later found murdered by a parolee with a history of abducting and raping women, public outrage backed a “three strikes” ballot initiative mandating an automatic 25 years to life sentence for three-time felons. The California’s state legislature was inspired to pass a three-strikes version of its own, and by 1999, 24 states as well as the federal government had enacted some type of three-strikes law. But here's a favorite history-making murder: In 1799, Gulielma “Elma” Sands left her Manhattan boarding house and vanished, until her body turned up in the Manhattan Well. Amid wide publicity, fellow boarder and lover Levi Weeks was put on trial for the crime. It was not only New York’s first scandalous murder mystery, it was the first "dream team" defense: Levi's well-off brother hired two founding fathers, former Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton and future Vice President Aaron Burr, along with future Supreme Court Justice Harry Livingston to defend Levi. The defense created a reasonable doubt strategy--presenting alternative suspects and theories (including suicide), attacking the victim's character, establishing Levi's alibi and planting doubts about prosecution witnesses--that would inspire future defense lawyers. And it was the young nation's first recorded criminal trial, as the court clerk transcribed into the wee hours, when exhausted jurors decided "not guilty." To read about more surprising murders that made history, go to http://listverse.com/2015/03/22/10-murder-mysteries-that-made-history/

On Father's Day: Fatherhood, Filial Duty in Flux

Father's Day is on its way, and I will be getting in touch with my 90-year-old dad, and my adult children will come home to celebrate their own father. Fatherhood certainly has changed significantly since celebration of "Father's Day" gained U.S. popularity in the early twentieth century and even since it became a fixed national day of recognition in 1972. Today's fathers are no longer the married breadwinners and disciplinarians of yore; they are also single dads, gay dads, stay-at-home caregiver dads, adopted dads, step-dads, and even transgender dads like Caitlyn Jenner. Overall, modern fatherhood trends are a good thing, since research shows that fatherly love is as important to a child's social, emotional and cognitive development as motherly love, and new fathering norms allow for greater care giving and interaction than in the past. But it seems to me that something also has been lost in the last century, and that is the concept of filial duty. America's current youth-oriented, self-fulfillment culture has relegated many filial duties to the moral dustbin with wifely obedience and whipping naughty children. You have to go to conservative religious tracts to read about children's duties, into adulthood, to honor, respect, obey, and take counsel from parents, and then care for them in old age. Is this erosion of filial responsibilities a good or bad trend for American society? Yes, government programs and professional caregivers have actually improved conditions for many older parents compared to past reliance on private filial care and financing. But what about emotional and social consequences? Well, junking fatherly input is probably fine for children with stifling, abusive or neglectful fathers; but it may not be so good for those whose loving dads could impart confidence, ethics and the wisdom of experience. Yes, we have a more creative, open society if unfettered from conservative parental tradition; but lack of parental guidance also can create a society adrift, without communal morality or understanding of its past. So while I'm definitely not advocating a return to patriarchal rule, perhaps we should salvage a bit of what was best about the "good old days" on this Father's Day. I'll try harder to show dear old dad how much we honor him and care about him, even if we don't follow the old requirement to physically care for him. More important, I'll try harder to heed the lessons earned by his longer years--right and wrong. For a glimpse of what other cultures can teach us about honoring elders:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/25/what-other-cultures-can-teach_n_4834228.html

When Gender Roles Change, Does That Change Fiction?

Two consecutive events got me thinking about gender roles and writing: On Nov. 16, my book club discussed Herman Wouk's novel Marjorie Morningstar, and on Nov. 17, Doris Lessing, author of The Golden Notebook, died. The assumptions about gender roles in the two works represent quite different views. Published in the 1950s and set in the 1930s, Marjorie Morningstar tells the story of a young New York Jewish girl who rebels against social expectations and dreams of becoming an actress, only to end up (chastened by lost illusions and lost virginity) as a conventional (but happy) wife and mother. It is a book that reflects the traditional views of my mother. Moving on to the 1960s, The Golden Notebook's protagonist is a writer and single mother, Anna Wulf, whose psychic fragmentation is expressed in the novel's format of story interposed with Anna's notebooks: a black notebook for her youth in Africa, which formed the basis of her one successful novel; a red notebook for Cold War politics and her disillusion with Communism; a yellow notebook for a fictionalized self; and a blue notebook as an intimate diary. Anna seeks to weave together all the pieces of her reality in one "golden notebook." A favorite of feminists at the time, the book deals frankly with female sexuality, work, love, men, marriage and motherhood. It is a book that echoes many of my feelings as a working wife and mother at a time when gender equality was an unrealized dream. Fast forward to the 21st century. "We've come a long way, baby," and the majority of millennial women (which includes my daughter) tell researchers that they believe they live in a world without gender barriers, where they can have both a rewarding professional career and a fulfilling personal life. "Balance" is their mantra, with seven in 10 listing a "work/life balance" as an important quality of the successful female business leader. So successful writing now must create female protagonists who transcend gender roles. But that's actually nothing new. Both Marjorie Morningstar and The Golden Notebook are really about the desire for, and obstacles to, self-realization regardless of gender--which is why the books continue to be read despite some sweeping social changes. To quote Doris Lessing: “What's terrible is to pretend that second-rate is first-rate. To pretend that you don't need love when you do; or you like your work when you know quite well you're capable of better.” Current and future generations still face those issues; gender bias simplified or complicated but did not remove such challenges.