Domestic Violence

Domestic Violence Again in 2011 and Close to Our Homes

This weekend people in my community are mourning the loss of three lives. An abusive man, and his wife, and a police. The abusive man killed his wife who is the mother of his 4 children. He then killed the police officer. Finally, he killed himself. The report is that this man had been abusing his wife for over 10 years until she seperated from him and took the children. The number of victims in this situation are growing now. The wife's family, including the children, the man's family, the officer's family...this is where the Peace of Families now are in danger. If we as a society do not sufficiently address domestic violence, these stories will continue to haunt us.

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Permalink Reply by Grigori Rho Gharveyn on March 3, 2011 at 6:44pm

Dear sister Kaya,

The pain of domestic abuse is a terror we would help end. It must end where it begins, in our hearts.

Our peaceNext sister Lita inspired these words which we realized we must also share with you:

We treasure all love, however it is expressed.

What love may say is often veiled by the poor ways in which we sometimes speak.

Consequently, much harm to many people arises from poor communications skills, love sometimes speaks with violence as well as tenderness, compassion, and mercy; we must always love unconditionally to the best of our abilites, with compassion and mercy in response to every human act because all human actions have their origins in love regardless of how our cognitive functions distort the messages of our hearts in ways that may too often hurt.

It is perhaps the damage to our hearts that inhibits us from trusting and daring to express our tender love again that is the greatest wound of all.

Namaste

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Permalink Reply by sandra justad on August 7, 2011 at 8:44pm

My heart goes out to you and your community and the affected families. I hadn't realized the breadth of the ripple effect of abuse -- the emotional storms that rock the families of those killed. You don't hear about them after the initial crisis, as they struggle to deal with the losses.

Each country deals with abuse differently. Sometimes areas within the same country deal with abuse differently. What would you like to see happen? What's a first step? Does your faith tradition offer support?