An Episode of Oprah

There recently was an episode of Oprah with a woman who was in an abusive marriage. I'm an avid Oprah viewer but the commercials for this particular show were so disturbing that I couldn't even bring myself to watch it. In the commercials you could hear and see this woman's husband cursing and beating her because he had their teenage son video tape it. All a little too much for me, but I do realize that there are many women and young girls who live that life everyday.
In college, a friend was in a situation where she was being beaten. We would see her in classes with black eyes and bruises but it still took a while to ask her what was going on; even though we knew. Of course at first she lied but finally she did admit that she needed some help. Why did it take so long to ask a friend if she needed help when the answer was already so clear? Well its a curious thing, but somehow the person who is being abused either believes that they deserve it or that being beaten is a form of love. Either way as a friend, you know that they are more apt to be defensive and not receptive to help.
I recently heard some advice on the Steve Harvey show about how to deal with a loved one in these types of situations. Steve gave the advice to not confront your loved one but go straight to the abuser or send that unscrupulous cousin or nephew that's been in jail once or twice; basically someone who doesn't really have good sense! You get that person to go and talk to the abuser and basically say "Hey look, we all know what's going on so you don't even have to try to deny it. You need to stay away from (insert name here) or some real bad things might happen to you." Then if you'd like to throw some extra stuff in there, then you can use a couple of lines from Bad Boys 2 when that boy came to pick up Marcus's daughter and Mike asked him if he ever slept with a man. You know what I'm talking about if you've seen the movie. Then chop the dude in the throat so he can't breathe...
I thought this was great advice. But if you'd like some PhD advice, I've got that too click on this link: http://www.oprah.com/tows/pastshows/200705/tows_past_20070508_c.jhtml

I personally like and will follow the Steve Harvey advice should there be another person in my life who needs this kind of help. I surely will not be going to any one's apartment to ask their crazy boyfriend to leave peacefully anymore, believe me crazy and peaceful don't go together. You have to fight crazy with crazy; send your crazy cousin to handle business.