QUOTE SNIPPED FOR SPACE
Hi there,
It definitely seems that her personal experience has had a profound effect on how she views this case. Abuse does change women. And to some extent, I think many of us take our own life experiences, whatever they may be, and apply them to the cases we discuss. I know Lulu from some other cases and she's not an insensitive person, although I understand how her insinuation of Jodi suffering abuse would upset people. I don't agree with her views on that. These topics are ultra-sensitive and understandably, people are passionate about them. But I also believe we can discuss them from different sides of the fence as long as the commentary remains respectful.
I just posted my response to her on my blog and figured I'd share it here. There may be a few things in my post that people don't agree with, and then again, some will. Jodi is the worst of humanity, basically a violent animal that should never see the light of day. I can't state it any simpler than that. But I also think it's ok to look at the entire situation surrounding this case including Travis, religion, pyramid schemes, family issues, etc etc... for the purpose of learning. What happened with both of them was pretty messed up and perhaps there's a cautionary tale there. To some extent, I do agree that what happened in Mesa was the perfect storm. Here is my response so you can understand what I mean:
I appreciate your thoughts. They’re not the popular ones out in the public, but I appreciate you being brave enough to say them. There are some items I agree with and some I don’t. I do believe that Travis had some issues of his own that were not resolved. I think it goes a little beyond him just being a single guy who was a player. The bigger issue was that he was living a lie – preaching to groups of people and pretending to be living a Mormon life and he wasn’t. Nobody’s perfect, hey, we all do things we know we shouldn’t. But there’s a difference when you are preaching to a group of people and expecting them to live a life that you are lying about.
With that said – I do not believe that he abused her at all. He was pretty darn clear that he wasn’t going to marry her and she kept pursuing him. She wanted sex with him so bad whichever way she could get it. He didn’t make her do anything she didn’t want to. She even moved to AZ after they broke up even though he told her not to. His mistake was that he continued to sleep with her. You wave sex in front of a single man and most of them are going to take it. So I get that and cut some slack. But when he found out she was hacking his accounts, stalking him & his girlfriends, slashing tires, etc… he was crazy to continue to sleep with her. That’s just simply unexplainable, and seems to show his deeper seeded issues.
At the end of the day – Jodi is one insane, evil, beyond-repair criminal. I have no sympathy for her. Whatever she gets, she deserves. Was Travis responsible for his death? No, absolutely not. Did Travis make some very unfortunate, foolish mistakes that played a part in the grand scheme of what happened to him? Yes. Let me be clear. That does not mean he caused his death. I just wish he made different choices. We can learn from this.
The thing that's hard about discussing this case with many people is that emotions are exceptionally high and people tend to be radically on either side of the fence. Myself, and Nick, believe that you can have a civil conversation about all of it without being a supporter, hater, troll.. and whatever else some may call you. I have been called a hater and a supporter online, which is outlandish. Nothing could be further from the truth. Interrogating people and the decisions they make is important in life. It helps us to understand humanity and be better people. That’s what we wrote about in our book. Again, thanks for being honest and brave about how you feel. I disagree about LaViolette and about the abuse, but respect that you have a different opinion. Chat soon.
