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                                    FATHERS' RIGHTS & EQUALITY EXCHANGE

                                            701 Welch Rd., #323 
                                            Palo Alto, CA  94304
                                               (415) 853-6877
                                           Internet: free@vix.com




          June 21, 1993



          Editor
          Oakland Tribute
          Alameda Newspaper Groups
          Via Facsimile

          To Whom It May Concern,

          This letter is in  response to your June 19th front page coverage
          of the Torres tragedy.

          As you will recall, this story involved a grandmother killing her
          two  small grandchildren  rather than  let their father,  who had
          obtained custody, take them.

          I was astonished that even though the father had won custody, and
          was  on his  way to  pick  his two  small children  up  from West
          Virginia, he was barely mentioned at all in your story.

          Here is  this poor man,  en route to  get his kids, only  to find
          them slain at the hands of their own grandmother when he arrives,
          and you don't even acknowledge the horror he is going through?

          At the end  of your article you provide  donation information for
          Vanessa Torres,  the children's mother,  to whom  custody of  the
          children was not even considered, for her expenses.  Again, where
          is the mention  and compassion for the father  of these children?
          For his grief?  Indeed, for his expenses?

          It is the  fact that our  society still does  not give credit  to
          fathers  as parents that gives rise to  tragedies such as the one
          which you  covered on that  fateful day when the  Torres children
          lost their young  lives.   Had it  been reversed, had  it been  a
          mother on her  way to get  her children, and the  grandmother had
          killed them,  I am confident  there would have been  several more
          column inches devoted  to the anguish which the travelling parent
          faced, and how disgusting and  unhuman an act the grandmother had
          committed, rather than quotes  such as "It was a selfish  kind of
          love..Carol was  too selfish  to  let the  father have  permanent
          custody."

          It behooves all of us,  especially our children, to remember that
          fathers are parents too.



          Sincerely,



          Anne P. Mitchell, Esq.
          Director



          APM/wp
-- 
      Anne P. Mitchell, Mom, Attorney at Law, Fathers' Rights Advocate
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