Spotting Child SEPTEMBER 1989 Abuse BULK RATE by Mindy Robin Adelman U.S. POSTAGE PAID Recently, a lot of attention has been given to ANN ARBOR. Ml physical and sexual assaults on children by strang- PERMIT NO. 736 ers. What many people don't realize is that the majority of people who are hurting children in our society are the children's parents, grandparents, or other people who are close to the child or re- sponsible for her or his well-being. According to ANN ARBOR'S ALTERNATIVE NEWSMONTHLY the Michigan Children's Trust Fund for the Pre- vention of Child Abuse, more children under the age of five die from injuries inflicted by their par- ents than die from tuberculosis, whooping cough, The Tom Monaghan/Word of God Connection polio, measles, diabetes, rheumatic fever, and ap- pendicitis combined. According to the Assault Crisis Center of Washtenaw County, one out of Right Wing Pizza Baron Sparks Domino's Boycott three girls and one out of six boys are sexually as- saulted before they reach the age of 18. Ninety by Tad Sylvester percent of the assailants are known to the children. Eighty percent of the assailants are within the Domino's Pizza insists that the current boy- Pizza will drop in a way that not even the company Pizza to Michigan Right to Life's "Committee to child's family. cott of their company is having no impact on their will be able to deny." End Tax-Funded Abortions" (see AGENDA, Au- sales of pizza. "We 've looked at campus sales na- Engelbert points to a barrage of media atten- gust 1989). Child abuse, as defined by the Exchange Club tionally," said company spokesperson Ron H ings t tion—local and national—directed at the boycott The seed for the current coalition boycott was Center for the Prevention of Child Abuse, is any in a recent interview, "and they are up from last as another measure of its success. Engelbert and planted in the spring of 1988 when Monaghan "non-accidental harm or damage inflicted on a year." However, Hingst admitted that campus other members of the Coalition have been inter- personally cancelled a NOW fundraiser schedul- child by an adult. Damage may be physical vio- markets across the country were registering some viewed about a dozen times by newspapers and ed for May 20 at Domino's Farms, the complex lence, sexual exploitation and/or emotional mal- boycott activity, and singled out Berkeley, Den- radio stations, including Ne wsday and Newsweek. which serves as corporate headquarters for Dom- treatment." ver, and Manhattan as "hot spots." Hingst said The McNeil/Lehrer News Hour is also interested ino's Pizza. At the request of Washtenaw-Ann Sexual Abuse both the pizza stores and the company are receiv- in the story and will be sending a crew to Ann Arbor NOW, on January 13, 1989, the National Sexual abuse is anything that an adult does ing letters and Domino's Pizza coupons with anti- Arbor in mid-September. NOW Board passed a resolution, urging their with a child to give the adult sexual excitement. Domino's messages written on them. Meanwhile, the Coalition to Boy cott Domino' s 200,000 members to boycott Domino's Pizza. The Ann Arbor-based educational group Break The boycott was launched at the Ann Arbor Pizza meets weekly, planning strategies for mobi- "NOW chapters around the country were also The Silence cites sexual talk, showing pornogra- Township-based Domino's Pizza World Head- lizing students here in Ann Arbor and on cam- asked to organize events and letter-writing cam- phy to a child, sexual fondling of the child or hav- quarters July 18 by a coalition of seven groups, puses across the country. "Domino's has long re- paigns around the boycott," said Jan BenDor, a ing the child sexually fondle an adult, oral sex, and including members from NOW (the National Or- lied on student markets for their pizza profits," spokesperson for 500-member Washtenaw-Ann intercourse as examples of sexually abusive be- ganization for Women), the Latin American Soli- said Engelbert. "It's time they were held account- Arbor chapter. havior. darity Committee, and the Ann Arbor Coalition to able for the irresponsible way those profits are Monagahan, a self-proclaimed devout Catho- The following symptoms of sexual abuse have Defend Abortion Rights, among others. spent" lic who opposes abortion, cancelled the NOW been identified by the Kalamazoo County Child "I have worked in grassroots organizing for a The Coalition is demanding, among other event when he learned some of the proceeds from Abuse/Neglect Council. If encountered, theCoun- number of years," said Phillis Engelbert, a spokes- things, that Thomas S. Monaghan, sole owner of the hayride and pizza party were to go to the cil urges that they be reported to Child Protective person for the Coalition to Boycott Domino's Piz- the Domino's Pizza empire, an enterprise which People's Campaign for Choice, a group working Services for further investigation. za, "but I have never seen anything like the re- boasted $2.3 billion in sales in 1988, stop using to protect the reproductive rights of all women. Repeated attempts to run away from home, or sponse that this boycott is provoking." "As more pizza profits to fund the anti-choice movement. In With the help of the ACLU, NOW is suing Dom- extreme fear or reluctance to go home after school people find out about the boycott, and the reasons particular, the group objects to $110,000 in dona- ino's Pizza, claiming they were victims of dis- may indicate that a child is trying to run away from for it," explained Engelbert, "the sales of Domino's tions in 1988 made by Monaghan and Domino's (see BOYCOTT, page 4) someone or something at home. Aggressive or de- linquent behavior such as lying, stealing or being physically or sexually abusive to other children, is often a child's only way of acting out the frustra- tion and lack of control that s/he is feeling from The Neglected Legacy of Frank Lloyd Wright abuse. It may also represent what s/he is experi- by Rich Ahern encing at home. Sexually seductive behavior toward adults or Frank Lloyd Wright is commonly consider- Possibly the foremost and certainly the most quite homely as well as uncomfortable when other children may indicate that a child has learned ed to have been America's greatest architect. flamboyant promoter of Wrightiana is Tom taken out of context. Wright saw "no value in that the only way to get love, affection or attention Even no w, 30 years after his death, his fame and Monaghan, owner of the Domino's Pizza empire. the part except as the part is harmoniously re- is through this behavior. Sexual themes in a child's the fame of his buildings are undiminshed. He has established a museum to house his exten- lated to the whole." artwork may represent something that s/he is But what is not well-known about Wright sive collection of Wright furniture, furnishings Preservation was generally a low priority afraid to talk about, or that s/he has been told not among the general public is that he was avision- and models, and an archives for Wright's plans for Wright, even of his own buildings. He saw to discuss, or that s/he doesn't know how to dis- ary philosopher of culture as well as an architect and documents. He has bought Wright houses and change as an inexorbable law of nature and he cuss. Art is an outlet that many children and adults of buildings. Indeed for him "Architecture" has built his Domino's Pizza headquarters in a always had his eye on the future. He never fail- use to express things that are difficult for them to was a big word, encompassing not only the de- Wright-influenced style. He has retained a former ed to stress that "the essence of organic building verbalize. sign of buildings but the design of landscapes, Wright apprentice to design his own mansion. is space, space flowing outward, space flowing A child may fear being touched, especially by of transportation and utilities systems, of the And he has co-sponsored, with the University of inward. Both plan and construction are seen to adults, if s/he associates touch with something that entire built environments of continents and of Michigan, a series of four symposia on various be inspired from within."Nevertheless, he might is confusing such as an adult's sexual excitement. the political and institutional structures of na- topics relating to the legacy of Frank Lloyd Wright. well be pleased with the preservation of his A child may resist being with a particular person, tions as well. "[TJhere can be no separation As a long-time admirer of Mr. Wright and his houses if people could sit and relax in his interi- either because that person is abusing her or him, or between architecture and our culture," he said. work, my initial reaction to Mr. Monaghan's avoca- or spaces so as to experience his buildings from reminds her or him of someone who is. A child Wright's philosphy is scattered throughout tion was wholly favorable. And there has been a the inside looking out. may also isolate her or himself from peers. Chil- his many writings. It is incomplete and in some good deal of worthwhile information generated, The wonderful sense of great interior space dren often believe that others know what they're need of modification in the light of experience.