To condemn Adrian Peterson without considering racial context ...

[jwirr]

31. Thank you. You are right about the abuse being for different reasons. I hear what you are saying

about the African-American's culture needing to protect their children - especially their sons. Which is why Adrian Peterson said it was no more than what his parents did to him. It is understandable from that viewpoint.

My father came from a German American family and my grandmother beat her three oldest children with a tire iron. The three of them confronted her when she tried the same with her youngest son. I listened to my father (the gentlest father anyone could ever want) talk about what she had done and what kind of personality she had. IMO she abused her children because she was raised in a rich family and then had to get married to a poor farmer. I have heard others say that it was often about "spare the rod and spoil the child" but in the cases that I have investigated and in the cases I learned about from other families I don't think there was much of that. In my grandmother's case had to do with plain selfishness. She had no excuse for what she did.

These are two reasons that abuse happens. I am sure there are many others. So now we are at the next question. What can we do about what today we call abuse? Hopefully Adrian will find a way to do things differently. For his sake as well as the sake of the child. Discipline can come in many forms. What do you want to see happen regarding this need to protect the African-American children without going this far. Is it still necessary? I know that is a stupid question considering Michael Brown. How does this get better?

In my grandmothers case and all those like it I favor a strong law that can both deter and punish action like hers. She was a poor mother, period. Education may have helped. But it was not there. That is where the church should have stepped in instead of quoting their favorite verses about spoiled children.

As it turned out way back then I doubt that there were any laws to protect her children. The family stepped up only when the older children took over. By the way she was as abusive to her husband as she was to her children.

After Ferguson MO we talked about how to change things for the better. Is there a way to change this in the lives of children like Adrian Peterson's son?