To the Editor:
As the month of October comes to a close I am contemplating what it means to designate awareness months -- February for black history, March for women's history, April for sexual abuse awareness and so on. October is national domestic violence awareness month, though around here, most folks probably don't know that.
Early in October, the Women's Resource Center, together with WISE, coordinated a series of programs about domestic violence which we publicized widely but about which our student press remained silent. For those who participated, these programs were educational and empowering, but far too few people are learning and changing. Mid-month, I spoke publicly and raised the question of what impact recent high profile national attention to this issue will have on individual lives. My remarks became a footnote to what local and campus press have deemed the 'real' issues. Today, here I am struck still again by the silence.
I listen to the radio and register all the (justifiably) increased attention to "domestic terrorism," bombs going off, people getting shot, buildings collapsing. And there's a small but increasingly worked-up part of me that wants to scream: Women and children are terrorized daily; every single day 10 (yes 10!) women are murdered in the US. by male partners or ex-partners; students -- women and men --on this campus (students that I, and you, know and talk to) walk through every day of their lives suffering intensely from domestic violence (physical and emotional) used against them by parents, partners, siblings, people they love.
When we talk about building community we must talk about the kind of domestic terrorism going on behind closed doors in intimate spaces between loved ones. Every one of us can be a part of the solution to this problem. Learn more about domestic violence so you can recognize it when you see it -- in your life or in the lives of the people you know and care about. Don't write violence off as "private" or "none of your business." Awareness months can help, awareness every day and all year matter more.
Anyone who wishes to know more or needs help can contact the WRC (we have a binder full of domestic violence related information) or the Sexual Abuse Awareness Program on campus, or WISE in Lebanon.
