For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for February 17, 2021

hmmmm… how suspicious

Gordon will talk when he’s ready…if he wants to talk

Victims of any kind of abuse are made to feel shame, that it’s their fault, and bad things will happen if they tell anyone.

I’ve seen some bad things growing up. And that was in my own house. Life is tough.

Poor Gordon! I didn’t follow this strip much first time around, but I’m really hoping Elly ends up taking Gordon in. No one should have to live like that and unfortunately, we don’t always know until we can see it.

Looks like we’re heading into A Very Special For Better or for Worse…

Michael would make a great detective.

I hate this story arc!

You see? Gordon won’t even tell Michael the truth, despite mentioning it in earlier strips. So there’s no way at all that he’s going to tell Elly about it.

When I was growing up, there was a kid down the street who was always showing up with fresh bruises on his face. He always said that he fell down the stairs… But their house was a single-story with no basement…

Lynn’s Comments:

Following this revelation, I received many letters. Readers were not as interested in asking me about the life of the character in the strip but in telling me about their own abusive experiences. Stories like this brought me, personally, closer to my readers than I had ever been before.

Well Mike, you suck at being a friend. If your good friend is making up a cover story to cover something that bugs him, then you support him instead of trying to prove he’s lying!

For those who read the strip when it first was running in newspapers, just remember how Gordon turned out. Having an abusive childhood didn’t doom Gordon. Kids can learn from bad parents how not to be.

If you are going to tell a lie, cover all your bases. The being lied to person is not as dumb as they might look.

Ho no. This just confirmed the worst.

i had a classmate in 2nd grade who came to school on more than one occasion with black eyes so bad that his eyeballs were bloody. He swore to the teacher that- and this is a true quote- he’d “walked into a door.” The same kid missed a lot of school… i remember that he was out over a month in hospital that year.

It seems that the teachers never asked a lot of questions about things like that in those days. i have no way of knowing, but i wonder if it ever came up in a parent’s conference.

A lot of victims make up a cover story as well. Here in the US, teachers are mandated reporters for suspected abuse or neglect and I hope the ones in Lyn’s strip are as well.

I know this is a comic, but GEEZ these people are taking a long time to catch on to what’s happening to poor Gordon.

Children are never believed over adults. I church decon raped me and I told my parents. They never went to the pastor about it, nor the police. I asked why and they said “Who is going to believe a child over a church deacon? No one.” My sisters found out from my mother but said nothing. The deacon developed cancer and confessed on his death bed. He believed God would forgive his sins because he confessed. His son asked my I never said anything about it. I said “Would you have believed me.” He replied “No”. That is why I kept silent for 50 years. It has only been since his death that I could finally be free from it. The guilt I felt thinking it was somehow my fault has finally subsided.If someone tells you they were abused LISTEN to them.

In the U.S. teachers are required to report suspected child abuse. If any of his teachers notice a pattern of injuries they would report it to the proper agency.

Most kids would rather stay with an abusive parent that they know, than report the parent and get put into the foster care system, a scary unknown.

Sadists cause so much pain to the innocent. Mike should tell his parents about Gordon’s parents.

after the incident with Mike’s mom’s car he was found sleeping in the back of the car so he wouldn’t have to go home and even mentioned how his dad abused him before for different things he had done. it is time to step in and help your friend out before something later happens that may have a deadly ending.

I always felt that my brother had one of the toughest jobs in the world. He was a State Family Relations Officer. He dealt daily, on a first-hand basis, with spousal abusers, child abusers, drug and alcohol abusers, and domestic disturbances of all kinds. Often, it was his recommendations to the judges that would put the abuser behind bars and get help for the abused.

Sometimes the terrible futility, the amount of recidivism, and the bureaucratic battles would get to him. That job took its toll on him as it did many people working in this field. After a quadruple coronary by-pass at age 40, a failed marriage, and growing health issues, he retired at 56.

He passed away a few weeks shy of his 65th birthday but those “retirement” years were the happiest he’d ever had.

Oh boy this comic can get serious & intense!

I’ll just post this here: WARNING….IF YOU WATCH IT, BETTER GRAB A FEW TISSUES. https://www.wideopencountry.com/alyssa-lies-the-story-behind-jason-michael-carrolls-tragic-song/

Glad to see FBOW tackling a substantive issue.

Hello Brian, this is your wake up call.

The Patersons should adopt Gordon

His dad should be thrown in the slammer.

I don’t like this story line.

He doesn’t wish to be homeless.

… to prosecute a different crime in which the victim doesn’t want to …