Leaving him when he needed her most

By Alex P. Vidal

“If we are happy within ourselves, we don’t accept or demand that our partner should fulfill every need. We need to be comfortable with our own company.”—Nathaniel Branden

WHAT kind of wife are you when you were so quick to discard your husband at a time when he needed you most?

Or vice versa.

Would you abandon a partner in life while the whole world wants to roast him for committing an abominable act that resulted in a massive violence and hullabaloo?

At a crucial moment when murder accused Derek Chauvin badly needed a shoulder to lean on, his wife, Kellie, filed a divorce and flushed him down the toilet like a piece of shit by expressing displeasure for his act after filing the divorce.

Even if their husbands were so notorious and despicable, many Filipino wives never did—and will never do—what Kellie did to her embattled husband.

Our culture is indeed different from the western culture when it comes to family relationship.

Chauvin, now detained at Ramsey County Jail in St. Paul, Minnesota, was the sacked Minneapolis police officer caught by camera kneeling on forgery suspect George Floyd’s neck that resulted in the latter’s death on May 25.

 

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A camera has been reportedly focused on him round-the-clock, and cops check on his cell regularly–all the hallmarks of a suicide watch.

Chauvin was brought in late afternoon May 29, and didn’t make eye contact with anyone upon his arrival before beginning the check-in process, reported the TMZ.

“We’re told Chauvin was put through an unclothed body search to look for any hidden contraband,” TMZ reported further. “Then, he put on a jail uniform and they led him off to a single cell in a special wing of the facility for high-profile cases.”

Chauvin is now in isolation and being watched constantly. There’s a camera in his cell watching him 24/7, as well as guards monitoring the feed 24/7.

On top of that, he’s reportedly getting checked on in-person every 15 minutes.

While a source wouldn’t use the term suicide watch to characterize Chauvin’s circumstances—other law enforcement sources tell, yes, that’s effectively what’s happening at the jail.

 

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The violence that erupted in more than 20 states has also affected us in the Filipino community.

Additional curfew has been imposed in more than 40 cities in 15 states affected by the riot that escalated immediately after the viral video on the police brutality in Minneapolis spread.

The furor occurred at a time when we, in the Empire State, is preparing for the Phase I of the reopening of economy on June 8 (not anymore June 13 as reported earlier).

Many of us have started to go out to buy our food but continued to observe the six-feet distancing from one another and avoid places where there are more than 10 people.

We are starting to adjust and go back to normal life even if 41 million Americans have applied for unemployment, most of them have permanently lost their jobs.

While the death cases is nearing 30,000 in New York and 400,000 cases, the Floyd murder-inspired riot erupted.

 

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo)