Joe Loya

They were all going to get beat because it wasn't about the sons.

It was about what was in him.

And he didn't know how to deal with stress.

And he was always going to beat somebody.

And then that way, I was like, it's not about me.

And so I don't look at it like you did this to me.

I look at it as you did this to yourself.

Your conscience now has to deal with what you did to your boys.

Your wife told you, take care of my boys before she died.

And the courts took us away because you failed at taking care of your kids.

You have to live with that shame.

You have to live with that.

I let it go.

I have compassion for you.

It didn't happen to me.

I said this at a conference once, Sun Valley Writers Conference.

And there's a famous writer there named Frank McCourt who wrote a book called Angela's Ashes.

I don't know if you've ever heard of it or read it.

One of the greatest bestselling memoirs of all time.

And Frank McCourt came up to me afterwards and he said, you know, I've never been able to verbalize it because the book Angela's Ashes was how his dad was such a drunk and spending all the money and beating the kids and being his wife was that some of the kids died because they didn't have food.