Community Corner
What You Can Do to Eliminate Domestic Violence
If we care about our communities and our families, we need to care about healthy relationships.
If you witnessed someone being attacked while walking down the street, would you be able to walk by and not help—or would you find a way to get help or intervene? Many people believe that they would try to help another person in need.
Why is it then that the opposite response is almost always taken when someone learns a friend, family member or someone they care about is in an abusive relationship? Do they say to themselves, “It’s a personal matter, its none of my business; I shouldn’t ask any questions, if they need help they will seek help?”
Unfortunately, unless someone outside the abusive relationship intervenes, it will continue and it will feed and thrive on the silence. All too often, domestic violence relationships end in murder, the culmination of decades (and sometimes generations) of destruction and despair.
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How else would the sexual assault and abuse cases in today’s news continue for decades if the silence didn’t feed it? With physical or emotional abuse, and sometime both, it is so traumatizing that without everyone committed to not ignoring the red flags or warning signs, the person who is being abused is not capable of resolving the situation because the trauma is paralyzing, both physical and mentally.
If we care about our communities and our families, we need to care about healthy relationships that are free of abuse and control over another person. Some might say relationship and/or domestic violence are everyone’s issue. It affects every social and economic society throughout the world.
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October was National Domestic Violence Awareness Month and Nov. 25 through Dec. 10 marks awareness in the prevention of violence against women week. We ask that you join us in making a stand against domestic violence, 365 days a year to end domestic violence.
Silence feeds the violence and allows the abuse to continue. The shame, the blame, the horrific secret is not anything anyone wants to discuss, especially if it’s happening to you. It’s an ugly subject and many don’t know how to help or what to say in support.
Here are some things you can say: “It’s not your fault and nothing you have done or didn’t do is why this is happening.” “What is happening to you is wrong and you can make it stop by taking the necessary steps to get safe.”
Do we not see how domestic violence ripples into our communities? How a child in a home with abuse acquires this “learned behavior?” Research tells us that child abuse occurs in 30 percent to 50 percent of households where domestic violence is present, according to Childhelp.org.
If we see it every day in the news, with celebrities, within our communities, then why don’t we feel compelled to prevent, end and stop domestic violence? Do we believe law enforcement will handle and resolve what is needed? Or our justice system will hold perpetrators accountable and this will resolve?
If we can do a really outstanding job in detecting and preventing breast cancer, we can rally together and take a stand by saying no to allowing an abuser to have power and control over anyone.
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