[Vision2020] Some Staggering Facts About Domestic Violence

[Tom Hansen]

>From today's (October 16, 2006) Moscow-Pullman Daily News -

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HER VIEW: Some staggering facts about domestic violence 

By Joan Opyr

In the summer of 1990, a small group of women in Cape Cod, Mass., decided to
create a visual testimony to the victims of domestic violence. Led by artist
Rachel Carey-Harper, 31 T-shirts were inscribed with words, images, and
personal testimonies and displayed on the Village Green in Hyannis. In the
16 years since, those 31 shirts have sadly multiplied, and the Clothesline
Project has become a national event and the cornerstone of the YWCA's Week
Without Violence. 

Starting today and continuing through Friday, Washington State University
will be displaying the more than 500 shirts created by our students,
faculty, and staff over the past decade. Each represents a victim of rape,
incest, or domestic violence; each marks a tragedy; each marks a loss. 

Some statistics to consider: 

- 58,000 American soldiers died in the Vietnam War. During that same period
of time, 51,000 women were killed, most by husbands, boyfriends, or domestic
partners. Source: www.clotheslineproject.org. 

- 20 percent of all women murdered in the United States were shot and killed
by an intimate partner. Source: www.pvs.org. 

- 17.6 percent of women, nearly one in five, have survived a completed or
attempted rape. Of these women, 21.6 percent were under the age of 12.
Source: Findings of the National Violence Against Women Survey, November
2000. 

- According to the FBI, only 37 percent of all rapes are reported to the
police. According to the U.S. Justice Department, that number is only 26
percent. Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Department of
Justice. 

- In 2000, a single year, 246,000 women and 14,770 men were raped or
sexually assaulted. Source: The U.S. Department of Justice, 2001. 

- Only half of all incidents of domestic violence are reported to police,
and a staggering 64 percent of the women who do report having been raped,
assaulted, and/or stalked name their current or former husbands, boyfriends,
or domestic partners as the aggressors. Each year, an estimated 88,000
children are sexually abused. Every 90 seconds, someone in the United States
is sexually assaulted. Every 15 seconds, a woman is battered. 

In this country alone, at least 1,200 women per year are killed by their
domestic partners. Internationally, 60 million women who ought to be alive
are not. Sixty million women are missing, presumed dead. What can we do to
end this cycle of violence? What can we do to make women, children, and,
yes, men safe in their homes and safe in their relationships? 

We can take domestic violence seriously. We can recognize it as a leading
cause of death among women. We can raise awareness, and we can spread the
word. We can open our eyes and our ears. We can lobby for legal recognition
of the victims of domestic violence as victims of gender discrimination. We
can band together. We can adopt a policy of zero tolerance. 

No one "owns" another human being. Men do not own their girlfriends or their
wives. Parents do not own their children. No man has the right to beat, to
rape, to stalk, or to murder the woman he claims to love. 

Beginning today, the YWCA of Washington State University will host a series
of events highlighting various aspects of this growing and pervasive
problem. Tonight at 7 in the Fine Arts Auditorium, we will co-sponsor a
tribute to Masumi Hayashi, a photographer who was killed in her Cleveland
home this past August. All week long, we will display the WSU Clothesline
Project on the Glenn Terrell Mall, we will host lunch discussions, and an
event is planned for each and every night. Please check our Web site for the
complete calendar of events: 

www.women.wsu.edu/wwvcalendar.JPG

The YWCA of WSU is proud to sponsor the Week Without Violence, but what we'd
really like to do is put ourselves out of business. Our imperative is
eliminating racism, empowering women. We want that work to be done. We
strive for the day when domestic violence shelters are unnecessary and the
work we do redundant. Until then, we will educate and inform. We will march
and rally. Tuesday at 7 p.m. we will meet on the Glenn Terrell Mall and take
a stand against violence. Childcare will be provided in Wilson Hall. We will
Take Back the Night. 

Joan Opyr is the program director for the YWCA of Washington State
University. She is also a regular columnist for New West Magazine, Stonewall
News Northwest, and the Community News. 

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The "Week Without Violence" calendar of events may also be downloaded (and
printed) for distribution from:

Letter-size Poster (MS Word format, 850 kilobytes)
http://www.AuntieEstablishmentandBrotherCarl.com/Poster.doc

Letter-size Poster (PDF format, 500 kilobytes)
http://www.AuntieEstablishmentandBrotherCarl.com/Poster.pdf

Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Vandalville, Idaho


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"People call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that distinguish me
from a doormat." 

- Rebecca West (1913)
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