Kurn Hattin News
Lot's Daughters
Kurn Hattin Staff Accused of Incest
Here Hendrick Goltzius portrays Lot’s daughters appealing to their father with the beauty of their nude bodies. In his portrayal, Goltzius perpetuates the well worn, unconvincing biblical story that made these girls schemers, seducing their father into raping and impregnating them? Appealing? Yes, they certainly are. But are they appealing him to join them in incest, or is he sexually aroused by their appeal, or emotionally gratified by the thrill of absolute control and power over the powerless and forcefully acting upon it against their will?
Genesis 19 tells the story of how Abraham’s nephew Lot, along with his family, escaped the city of Sodom just before God destroyed it. Peter 2:7 references the destruction and says that God “rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the licentiousness of the wicked.”
As the Old Testament recounts: Lot, his wife and two daughters were visited by two angels who urged them to flee the city of Sodom before its imminent destruction by God. As they fled, Lot's wife disobeyed the angels' command to not look back and was turned into a pillar of salt. Lot and his daughters took refuge inside a cave near the mountain town of Zoar. Believing that there were no men left alive in the world, Lot’s chaste daughters conspired to get their father drunk with wine and each conceive a child by him in order to continue the family line.
It is curious that the Bible calls Lot “righteous,” given what Lot did when an angry mob of Sodomites tried to rape the travelers who were lodging with him. Instead of standing up to the mob, Lot offered his two daughters for the mob to rape! Lot says, “I beg you, my brothers, do not act so wickedly. Behold, I have two daughters who have not known man; let me bring them out to you, and do to them as you please; only do nothing to these men, for they have come under the shelter of my roof.”
Do to them as you please?
Is Lot a man who shows great scruples when it comes to his own daughters? Is this a father who respects and protects children, or is he a man who might do to them as -- he pleases? Why would anyone ever take his word against his daughters. And why would anyone imagine that these women, who are never given names, identified only as their father’s seducers, would have held sway against him if they had revealed the truth of his rape?
Following are two public statements about a Westminster man who is also perceived as righteous and who is lauded and revered, perhaps protected in his own community and 'come under the shelter' of Westminster's proverbial old testament roof.
The first accusation is voiced by Saxtons River resident, cattle farmer and zealous Kurn Hattin supporter, Nancy Bazin. As L. Raymond Massucco & Stern, P.C. has publicly stated, "If it has to do with land, Nancy knows what she is doing. She has many other talents and skills..."
The second accusation is written by the daughter of a former Kurn Hattin staff member, Peter Harrison, which speak directly to the pervasive culture of willful blindness and complicit silence in the local communities in Windham County surrounding Kurn Hattin and what is openly known of decades and generations of “alleged” horrific abuse perpetrated at the Vermont Approved Independent School. Bazin and Pete Harrison's own daughter, Melisa, accuse him of incest, and sexual assault.
Nancy Bazin - First and foremost, I am a huge supporter of Kurn Hattin Homes. I grew up in Saxtons River, where the girls campus was located. They have done a lot of good work, and I don’t want to see it lost because of unscrupulous people who found it a place to work and used it as their playground for abuse. I know of an abuser who worked as a house parent in the early sixties. He molested his own daughters. I do not KNOW of abuse to children in his care, but if he would molest his own……. He is still alive and lives in Westminster! For our residents, murmuring; “the leaders that were there, are not alive”, I say Pete Harrison is!!!!!
Melisa Holmes - A pay off and silence has never healed anyone: The Harvey Weinstein Effect. It all started with non diclosure agreements and payoffs. There was really no personal justice for those who settled. After all does Justice really mean keeping someone elses dirty little secret. If you had Peter Harrison as a houseparent at Kurn Hattin, did anyone go to him for protection from predators that were lurking around? Well, I can only hope that he wasnt harming the children at Kurn Hattin. There were many people that knew what was going on in his own home. Peter Harrison chose to have an affair with a woman named Judy.
He was working at Kurn Hattin. The abuse his family suffered at the hands of the two of them is unimaginable. There have been many girls lives that were forever changed because Pete Harrison sexually assaulted them. His wife Judy did nothing to protect her children and others. She knew. His victims have been swept under the rug like they are left over dirt. Pete and Judy ruined many lives, while continuing to live their own well to do life. Victims not so much. So I hope that the kids at Kurn Hattin were not harmed by him. they just needed a home. I will no longer hide behind a prop name for someone else’s shame. I am his daughter!
Child sexual abuse is defined as any sexual activity with a child where consent is not or cannot be given. This includes sexual contact that is accomplished by force or threat of force, regardless of the age of the participants, and all sexual contact between an adult and a child, regardless of whether there is deception or the child understands the sexual nature of the activity. Long-term effects of childhood sexual abuse are varied, complex, and often devastating. Self-loathing is common in incest survivors who wonder if the abuse was their fault or was fueled by their own desire.
Incest is an injury of body, mind and spirit. Incest survivors and those of other forms of childhood sexual abuse incur higher health care costs and use a disproportionately higher volume of health care and than adults who did not experience abuse. Left untreated, psychological pain often results in social and physical disorders. Incest effects can last well into adulthood, particularly when the survivor has ongoing contact with family who refuse to acknowledge or address the abuse, or blame the survivor for it. Research reveals that sexual contact between a child and a trusted adult scars virtually all facets of victims’ lives. The child is typically left with little, or no self-esteem. Whatever form the abuse takes, the child’s emotional growth is often stunted at the age of the first assault, leaving them to suffer at that stage until seeking therapy, typically later in life.
The fortitude required to come forward publicly as a survivor of years of paternal incest perpetrated by her own well-connected father is prodigious. The long term consequences of childhood incestuous abuse into adulthood are profoundly tragic. Melisa's father, prior Kurn Hattin houseparent, farm manager, and music teacher, Pete Harrison, also works, or has worked, for the Town of Westminster, the Westminster Fire Department, and also for Westminster Cares, a group that delivers meals to local senior citizens. Westminster Cares has an office in the Westminster Institute / Butterfield Library. The Westminster Cares meals are prepared at Kurn Hattin Homes for Children.
This Westminsterite, accused of incest by his daughter is listed in the Annual Westminster Town Report as being an elected town official and a trustee of public funds. The Westminster Report also states that Pete Harrison was Westminster Cares Vice President under the President of the organization, who was also Executive Director of Kurn Hattin Homes for Children, and who is most remembered by survivors through her own words, which revealed her true character. When made aware of documented abuse at the Vermont Approved residential school, she replied, "Memories are the bane of human existence."
Sigmund Freud declared that incest and patricide were the only two universal taboos that formed the basis of civilization. It appears that neither the Town of Westminster Vermont, nor New England Kurn Hattin Homes for Children received Sigmund’s memo. ... Child Victims of Incest: 'Do To Them As You Please!'