fatherly love

(Baonghean) - Attending many court sessions, witnessing many cases reenacted through the defendants' testimonies, there are cases that, even after being tried, I still cannot help but feel troubled about the fates of the people involved... It seems that the "common denominator" of those cases all originates from family tragedies that have accumulated for a long time. And in these family tragedies, the image of the father has become distorted in the eyes of his young children...

That trial took place on a day at the end of June in the blazing sun. The atmosphere in the courtroom was equally “hot” when the victim kept asking the panel of judges to increase the defendant’s prison sentence. The victim did not agree with the 5-year prison sentence of the first instance court, so he appealed to increase the prison sentence. That is also common in court sessions. But when reading the indictment of the People’s Procuracy, my heart ached because the person sitting in the victim’s chair and the person standing in the dock were father and son, bound and connected by a sacred bloodline. However, standing in court, that line was severed because every word the father uttered was an accusation of his son’s sins. He had the audacity to hit him, he intended to kill him! He tried to express his anger to the panel of judges. In the dock, the son remained silent. But then, when the whole incident was reenacted, people had more sympathy for the criminal, who was also a victim of domestic violence.

Illustration: Hong Toai

NQN (born in 1993, residing in Nghia Dan) is the second child in a family of two children. Since childhood, N and her older sister have witnessed many times their father beating their mother. N's father was stubborn and often drank alcohol. When he was drunk, he beat his wife mercilessly. N's mother had to run away from her husband's beatings many times. She went to the South to work as a hired hand, both to avoid her husband's beatings and to send money back to raise her children. Perhaps, the years she spent wandering around to make a living were the most peaceful days of her life. When Mr. NQĐ (N's father) had an accident and had to stay in one place with no one to take care of her, she packed her bags and returned to quietly fulfill her responsibilities as a wife. But when her husband recovered, the previous tragedy continued to repeat itself. He beat his wife more and more violently, even using a knife to force her to give him money to gamble and drink. N witnessed all the quarrels and beatings between her father and her mother. N and her sister could only cry and "incite" their mother to run away. N's mother's savings from working for hire for several years gradually ran out because of raising her children and her sick husband. She decided to borrow money to "take care" of N's going to work abroad. Knowing that his wife had money in hand, he asked her to give him that money, but she did not agree. So he beat her badly. Witnessing her father beating her mother, N rushed in to stop him, telling her to run away. When her mother had just run out of the house, Mr. Đ and N were fighting. N grabbed the bamboo stick from her father's hand and fought back. It seemed that all the anger N had accumulated was poured into her arm. Only when she saw her father lying motionless did N wake up and frantically call someone to take her father to the emergency room. Mr. Đ suffered 36% damage to his health, and N was prosecuted before the law for intentionally causing injury. Instead of using the father's tolerance to forgive his mistakes and reform his son, Mr. Đ appealed to increase the sentence for his son when the People's Court of Nghia Dan district sentenced N to 5 years in prison. Many people attending the trial and even members of the jury could not help but feel sorry. His appeal was not accepted because the court found that he was partly at fault in the incident. If only Mr. Đ had not acted violently towards his wife, if only he had given his son a proper home, then N would not have to stand before the bar like this. In the past, children beating their fathers was considered unfilial and should be condemned, but if he had had enough tolerance as a father, perhaps N would only have to suffer the punishment of the law and not receive more mental pain. I believe that N will overcome the 5-year sentence of the law, but when will the pain and injury that his father gave him heal?

If the trials were all separations, the trial of NTV (born in 1993, Nam Dan) was a "reunion" between father and son. V was prosecuted before the law for "property destruction". The property that V destroyed was his parents' billion-dollar wooden house. In the appeal trial, V's father, NTT, was extracted from the provincial police detention camp to attend as a person with related responsibilities and obligations. Previously, T was sentenced to death by the People's Court of Nghe An province for illegal drug trafficking. In the role of a timber tycoon, NTT led a ring that illegally traded 208 heroin cakes from Laos to Vietnam. Being labeled a "tycoon", T built the largest wooden stilt house in the commune to match his status. Money from drug trafficking ruined T's son. He was free to cause trouble, became friends with crystal meth, and one time when he was high on drugs, angry at his mother and wife because he felt abandoned by his loved ones, V poured gasoline into his bedroom and set it on fire. The fire spread, quickly burning down his father's house worth billions of dong. T got rich from drugs, but it was also drugs that robbed his son of his youth. A 10-year sentence for property destruction might be an opportunity for V to "break up" with drugs, but with the bad reputation of the son of a death row inmate convicted of drug crimes, will V have enough strength to stand up after this fall?

I read somewhere that “the father’s virtue and reputation are the son’s greatest legacy”. Unfortunately, there are children who are not blessed with this greatest legacy in life!

Khang Hoa