NEWS NUGGETS THE DR. NICKI WAY: It’s a Matter of Opinion

Just like my first News Nugget from two weeks ago, I just want to let you all know that I am starting with older news stories just to warm up to this new series of offerings from me to you!

I confess – when it comes to paying attention to current news reports I’m a total failure! Between the constant dismal reporting and deliberate aggression I find myself tuning out and turning off. Besides, we all know what each pundit will say before they open their mouths. The republicans will blame the democrats, the democrats will blame the republicans & everyone will blame their neighbor. Passing the buck is our national pastime. 

So where’s the kind of frank, relevant, unadulterated information we can sink our teeth into and open our hearts for? How can we learn through the news rather than cringe or slobber or spit?!

Indeed, when we can’t see the big picture it’s easy to get snagged in the little details. Ridiculing or despising how “others” choose to live their lives, or turning a blind eye to the underlying issues braiding through the world leads to endless complaining with little real solution. 

Welcome to News Nuggets….a discussion of patterns discovered, uncovered and announced through news events…conversations about how what occurs in the world around us, reflects who WE are.

I will welcome your opinion and interest. Walk with me as we see ourselves in the community mirror called the Collective. A more compassionate view of the world requires a better understanding of self. 

THE NEWS NUGGET EVENT:  CASEY ANTHONY ACCUSED OF KILLING HER 2 YEAR OLD LITTLE GIRL!

Did Casey Anthony, 25, kill  her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee, in 2008? She has pleaded not guilty to all charges, and denies harming her daughter.
Prosecutors allege that the Orlando woman used chloroform to render Caylee unconscious before putting duct tape over her nose and mouth to suffocate her. She left Caylee's body in the trunk of her car for a few days before disposing of it, they allege. The little girl's skeletal remains were found in December 2008 near the Anthony home.
During those 31 days [after Caylee was determined missing], Casey Anthony's friends and acquaintances testified she was shopping, getting a tattoo that said: "Bella Vita," or Italian for "beautiful life",  hitting nightclubs and staying with her boyfriend, but did not tell them Caylee was missing. If they asked her daughter's whereabouts, they said, she often said Caylee was with her nanny, a woman she identified as Zenaida Gonzalez. She later claimed Gonzalez had kidnapped Caylee after confronted by her family and authorities.
Police were never able to find the nanny, and she along with several other people Casey Anthony spoke of are believed not to exist.
Baez blamed Casey Anthony's behavior on her dysfunctional family situation. "These people are different," Baez said of the Anthony family. "This girl is different. And this is why she behaved in this way."

But, Burdick told jurors, "There's nothing that's wrong with Casey Anthony that can't be explained in two words -- pathological liar."

To the surprise of many Caylee was determined not-guilty. She has been released. Death threats follow her..

THE QUESTION: The other day my husband asked: “Why was everyone so interested in this story?!”

THE CONVERSATION: This is a tale of innocence cut off at its bare bursting. It is also reports a deep, underlying fear-provoking report of the mother so furious she can commit what many might consider the ultimate sin – infanticide.  In mythic and psychological tradition, the notable legendary example of such is Medea, most famously written of by Euripides.  

The notion of a murdering mother elicits visions of:

-       one who contravenes all human and divine laws

-       evil deception  (metis = ruse)

-       chaos

-       perversion

-       self-centered preoccupation

Thus, when we think of a mother murdering her child profound primitive material gets stirred in us. We imagine being reduced to our basest selves. If we imagine anything, that is. Mostly, it become easiest to avoid any correspondence to what’s occurred by using our well-groomed wagging shame finger instead of exploring how we might see ourselves in the circumstance. And of course, the events are so horrible it’s easy to go there.

How much better it would be, though, to discover the brutal murderess inside! Or at the very least, to find the over-burdened, short-fused, bratty adolescent that ‘just wants to have fun’! We have plenty of examples. Remember Susan Smith, Andrea Yates and Marybeth Tinning. Turns out, this is not such a rare phenomena as we prefer to think:

“The nation is always shocked by criminal cases such as Andrea Yates, a mother of five who methodically drowned all of her children in a bathtub then calmly called police, but mothers killing their children are more common than we might think.

According to the American Anthropological Association, more than 200 women kill their children in the United States each year. Three to five children a day are killed by their parents. Homicide is one of the leading causes of death of children under age four, yet we continue to "persist with the unrealistic view that this is rare behavior," says Jill Korbin, expert on child abuse, who has studied mothers who killed their children.”

Of course, what escalates our disgust about this story is Casey’s apparent cavalier attitude for the 31 days following Caylee’s disappearance/death.

WHAT’S THIS GOT TO DO WITH YOU? As always, looking at how you deal with: a) Feelings of excessive responsibility and/or up surging rage. And along those lines, have you ever been aware of the ‘killer’ living inside you? Under what circumstances do you believe yourself capable of killing?; b) In your own life/history when would you say you first lost your innocence? 

Let us know what you discover.