An opportunity for you to learn more.
In most states in America, October is Domestic Violence Awareness month. To commemorate this important event, I'd like to describe some of the activities presented by many domestic violence prevention centers across the country. I encourage you to find the events in your area and attend them, or even volunteer to help out.
The Femicide Report
The Femicide Report is usually compiled by the state's Coalition For Battered Women. They document each instance in the state where a woman or child was murdered by a relative, significant other, or former significant other. Reading through the report is an extremely sobering experience. Many details are repeated over and over again. The one that struck me hardest was how many women told their friends, "If anything happens to me, be sure to tell the police that he did it!"
The other truly striking thing about the report is how seldom there is a murder without suspects. The random slaying, the killer who strikes without cause, is extraordinarily rare. In 80% to 90% of the cases, the killer was a relative (usually husband and/or father), a boyfriend, or a former boyfriend.
Silent Witnesses
The Silent Witness Project is designed to dramatically illustrate how many people die every year from domestic violence. A life-sized woman's silhouette is cut out of plywood and painted bright red. A cross-piece made of 2x4s is installed in the back to enable the figure to stand upright. Often, each figure has one incident from the Femicide Report taped to the front, giving each figure an identity and a tragic story.
A single Silent Witness can be a very disturbing sight. A large group of them, especially one representing each murder victim from the past year, can be devastating. Coalitions against Domestic Violence make excellent use of them to make the audience feel the number of victims; to recognize the size of the problem. They can fill half of the bleachers in an auditorium. They can inhabit every corner of every hallway in a high school or community center. They can clog the corridors of a state capital.
The Rape Clothesline Project
In many states, the advocates against domestic violence team with the advocates against sexual assault to publicize both causes. In those cases, you may also see clotheslines of decorated T-shirts. If you have the courage, go and read them.
T-shirts on Rape Clotheslines are normal white T-shirts. Each one has been individually decorated by a Rape Survivor, using paint, markers, and many other mediums. Each T-shirt carries one survivor's message. The pain, the anguish, and the injustice leaps out from these shirts until it is almost a tangible cloud of pain. Some are savagely triumphant; others feel like a kick in the stomach. Many have the names of local towns or colleges, which forces the onlookers to realize that this level of suffering happens right where they live.
Spreading the word
If you attend any of these events, don't just go as an observer. Find some of the people who arranged the exhibition. Thank them; talk to them; ask them questions. Talk to the experts in your area, and ask them how the movement against violence is doing now, compared to four years ago. Chances are, the lucky ones have held steady. Chances are, most have declined -- some dramatically so. Ask the experts where their funding used to come from, and where it comes from now. Find out if there are important elections coming up, and which ones they are. The advocates will not be allowed to give you the names of specific people to vote for, but they are allowed to tell you which parties, in which races, have stances they agree with.
The vast majority of Americans do not know where funding for these services comes from. They just assume that centers for battered women or rape survivors or battered children just automatically exist. Nothing could be further from the truth. They exist because of public funding, from national, state and county revenues. In recent years, many agencies have been cut down to one-quarter their original size. Many have disappeared completely. Whenever I advise someone to check with their local center, I do so with the sinking feeling that that center may no longer be there.
Politicians and special interest groups that promise to cut your taxes usually try to convince you that nobody will get hurt because of it. They may try to tell you that "you can't solve a problem by throwing money at it," but notice they never propose cutting off funding for the Iraqi war, or the war on drugs. The plain fact is that money makes the world go 'round. If someone tries to get by with platitudes, tell them to put their money where their mouth is.
I encourage you to get involved in this month's Domestic Violence Awareness activities. I encourage you to get to know people and to ask questions. And I encourage you to vote for increases in funding to stop these horrible crimes.
