Being the violent yang to John’s Quaker yin here at MoF, the news of UCI’s shooting (see John’s twitterfeed) last night filled me with the desire for vengeance. Yahweh’s jealous anger has nothing on my righteous anger when it comes to domestic violence. Violence is not the solution to every problem (or even most of them), but sometimes, it feels to me like it’s the only solution to some of them.

This song is a recent addition to my Playlist Of Songs About Domestic Violence (see: Goodbye Earl). My favorite part:

Slapped my face
And ‘e shook me like a ragdoll,
Don’t that sound like a real man?

I’ve read cases where the abused partner did exactly what is described in this song and the law brooks no quarter for this. Which is good—we have to hold people responsible. But we also have to give abused partners a place of safety that they can go to—a place of real safety—and we have to hold the abusers responsible. I don’t condone the actions of the woman in the song, but singing along with it makes me feel better, a cathartic way of getting the anger out of my system.

I do not know the details of who abused who in the incident in question. I know that one woman is dead and one child is motherless. Because of the genders of the partners involved, my assumption is that it was the man who did the abusing, but for all I know, he was protecting himself from an abusive partner. If so, I hope that lady justice removes her blindfold and does not deny the child its father as well. If, however, the shooter was the abuser, there is a special place in the hell I don’t believe in where he will be left to be dealt with by me (and Nickelback, and the Dixie Chicks, and Miranda Lambert).