Men's Rally Against Domestic Violence

Last night, our Domestic Violence Emergency Shelter (DoVES) hosted a Men's Rally against domestic violence and a candlelight vigil for the 19 women and 14 children killed in Kansas as the result of domestic violence in 2008. The Men's Rally generated so much interest that it ran for twice as long as scheduled -- 90 minutes rather than 45. My remarks, scheduled for 15 minutes, became a 30 minute presentation with questions and answers from the 30-some audience members.

Most of my remarks are linked in the following blog posts. October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month and as the recently elected President of the DoVES Board of Directors, I have found three forums this month to discuss the topic: Mental Health Tuesday on KULY radio, the LogoTalk.Net podcast, and last night's rally.

In addition to the links in the following posts, consider the following numbers: Grant County has an estimated population of 4700. If Grant County follows national statistics as published by the Department of Justice, then we can predict that 96 women and 67 men were abused by their intimate partners in the month of October. We can predict that this would result in 52 injuries, most of which would not be treated or reported.

Domestic Violence is a pattern of abusive behavior used to control a partner or former partner. That pattern of behavior makes us of verbal, emotional, economic, sexual and physical means, or any combination of these means.

Domestic Violence is a Men's Issue because:

1. Men Know Survivors - among our family, friends, coworkers, church members.

2. Men Care About the Women in Our Lives - our mothers, sisters, daughters and wives.

3. Men Are Confined by Violence - the fear that women have of men shape and limit our relationships.

4. Men Can Help Stop It - be supportive survivors, challenging abusive men, raising our sons and daughters to not tolerate abuse, and become involved in community activities.

Phone Numbers:

The National Domestic Violence Hotline: 1-800-799-SAFE

The Kansas Crisis Hotline: 1-888-END-ABUSE

DoVES of Grant County: 1-620-356-1049