Wake up - wise up!
     by Al Paschall

     Mr. Wake Up-Wise Up is my most avid reader.  I can’t connect two sentences without a letter from him.  He’s been doing it for years.  He always signs his letters: ‘Wake Up-Wise Up’ never with a name.  They’re always delivered in a plain white envelope from the Philadelphia post office with no return address.  Most of the letters are scribbled but when he’s sober he methodically writes his letters on an old typewriter.  A member of Pennsylvania’s general assembly once called me a crackpot with a word processor.  It takes one to know one, and for years I have laughed at Mr.Wake-Up’s fan mail.
     But in his last letter Mr. Wake Up was really agitated.  He hates volunteer fire fighters.  His word for them is dofuses.  I’m not sure what a dofuse is but in his context I know it’s not complimentary.  Anybody who wants to build anything really upsets him.  Builders are gobbling up his township and stole all of his land from him and they should be put in jail with all of his township supervisors because they’re all corrupt.  His is one of hundreds of letters I get every year and if you are going to stick your nose into the people’s business in a few dozen newspapers in this state than you’d better be prepared to have it knocked off once in a while.  But he is different than my other critics.  He knows a lot about me.  My personal habits, my family and travels, my friends and acquaintances.  If I’ve read the research right Mr. Wake Up is a stalker.
     There are all kinds of stalkers.  All of them have been outlawed in Pennsylvania since 1993.  According to Doctor Patricia Tjaden, one of the nation’s foremost experts on stalking and domestic violence, there’s a lot of people out there with sick minds that they can’t control and defining them isn’t any easier than finding them.
     Mr. Wake Up appears to be one of the worst kinds.  He’s a delusional stalker.  Dr. Tjaden’s research shows that delusional stalkers have had little, if any, direct contact with their victims.  Afflicted people like Mr.  Wake Up are confused by mental illnesses like schizophrenia and manic-depression that cause sexual frustration.  I’m in good company.  John Hinckley, Jr., who attempted to kill Ronald Reagan to prove his love for actress Jodi Foster is the perfect profile for the delusional stalker.  While only 20% of stalking victims are men, David Letterman is among them.  At some point in their lives 1 out of 10 of America’s women will be stalked and according to Pennsylvania Attorney General Mike Fisher, when domestic violence is factored in, three women will die violently each and every day in the United States from stalking or domestic abuse.
     The beast of domestic violence is the tail end of the stalking dog.  The two wrap together.  One out of six women in this country are victims of domestic violence.  Its not clear how much of the pain is doled out by an ex-spouse or boy friend because that number probably represents only half the cases in the country, the rest go unreported.  When the tears are wiped off the statistics, the statistics become people.  One out of four suicides among women are precipitated by domestic violence and husbands or lovers kill three out of four women murdered every year in this country.
     In the last month we’ve learned all we never wanted to know about terror. Yet there’s terror in our own backyards that too many of us have ignored for too long.  October is Domestic Violence Prevention Month.  We know what we’d like to do to the people who raped our national souls in New York and Washington last month.  That should tell us what we ought to do to those that would spread domestic terror to our families, friends or neighbors who might be stalked or are victims of violent abuse.
     If you know about someone who’s being stalked or violently abused urge them to call your local police, county district attorney’s office, the state police and if none of those calls work they can call Pennsylvania’s Coalition Against Domestic Violence at 1.800.932.4632.  With half the domestic violence cases in this country going unreported chances are you’re going to have to stick your neck out and do it for them.  Do it carefully, but do it, you could save their life.
     Thank you Mr. Wake Up-Mr. Wise Up, your letters have done something good.  You woke me up.  Among thousands of readers one of them may call to get somebody some help.  It might save a person who is a victim of somebody like you.  Let go of your frustrations and feel good about that.  Then go write a letter to the editor of your favorite newspaper telling them what a crackpot I am.   You’ll feel good about that too because you’ll be pleasantly surprised at how many people agree with you.  But someday soon please go get some professional help before you hurt somebody you really love.

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