There is good news, and there is bad news.
It is to me a thing most curious, that within our species,
among our own families,
power, strength, should be used to hurt..
Relational violence is mind-bending,
as this Power to Hurt and Control others is used to temporarily take the edge off of feelings of inferiority.
What a loss;
how sad for us, that our culture has so many who will hurt those not only of their own species, but their very mates, their children.
Let me tell you a story.
Several years ago, an email came to my mailbox. It was addressed to the uNiversity president and several coaches who are gone now. This person was desperate to be heard.
The subject line said, One Mother's Plea
I'm writing this letter to you in regard to a STUDENT at your school. His name is Eddie.
On September 1st, I received a late night telephone call from my daughter. She was sobbing uncontrollably, she informed me that EDDIE has been beating/abusing her, for the past three months. Can you imagine receiving such a telephone call from your child?
My daughter's name is CC. She lives off campus. When she was telling me about it over the telephone, I was silent for 10-15 minutes, because I was in complete shock.
Apparently, that night around 9:00 pm, he had beaten her again, causing her mouth to bleed.
One of CC's roommates, Jim, had to pull EDDIE off of her. The police were called and had arrived, but EDDIE had already left the house.
The police told my daughter that it is a slim chance that he will be arrested, because there is no evidence. He has beat her up on numerous occasions.
He has punched her in the face,
kicked her in the stomach,
choked her to point that she can't breathe,
He has spit on her,
Bruised and bloodied her face and neck,
Punched her in the mouth.
He verbally assaults her, calling her names likes bitch.
He has the gall to give her an ice pack after he has beat her up.
EDDIE took it upon himself to take my daughter's spare keyring with her car & her housekey on it. He won't give that back to her.
He has threatened to slash her tires. This arrogant bully is an abuser. He has no right to beat up on my daughter or any other woman.
President W, do you have any children? Do you have a daughter? If so, hopefully, you haven't had to deal with your daughter being abused by a man. I'm so afraid that I'll get a telephone call with news that he has killed her. He has chipped away at her spirit. There is no excuse for this behavior.
The woman got assistance and graduated with honors.
I have Bad News.
Three women died to day at the hands of their husbands or boyfriends.
Tomorrow, three women will die at the hands of their husbands or boyfriends. Friday and Saturday, across America, 3 women will die at the hands of their husbands or boyfriends.
Each day, 4 women die as the eventual result of abuse.
One in three high school students will be involved in an abusive relationship.
60% of young women, ages 15 to 24, are currently involved in an ongoing abusive relationship.
According to the U.S. Surgeon General, domestic violence is the leading cause of injury to women in the United States. That is, the one we love are who is husrting us!
Each day, 3 children die as a result of abuse
Male partners assault 2 million American women each year
95% of the victims of domestic violence are women
We cannot weigh our sorrowful feelings when we consider all those lost to violence, through violence committed by the ones who should have loved them most.
BTW, When someone says,
"WHY DOESN'T SHE JUST LEAVE HIM?" please tell them that women DO leave, and may be beaten and killed, along with their children, when they do.
Rather ask, Why does he do this; how can we help stop it?
To be a survivor–first you must bleed. You bleed all that was inside of you: the pain, the memories, the fear, the wounds fusing together, the ties to what was, in all its forms. You bleed not once but several times.. And when you are empty, you either fade into a shadow or find the strength, and courage to live. When you stand up again, you are for a time, hollow–empty, like a bottle of beer lying on the street, cracked and reeking of its bitter contents. Then you fill yourself up with the new, you recreate yourself–you reform. You don’t have the same heart or mind. The way you see the world is forever changed. Written by Lynn Mari
This Bad News:
The problem of violence, violence among those who are intimate with each other –This is an epidemic.
Now, the research tells us that a third of the children who witness or experience one parent hitting another, who are raised in a forest of uncertainty, pain, sadness, unmet need for justice—little children who put their heads on the pillow at night, wondering, where is the police, where is the judge, where is God, where is Justice!?
One third will grow up with personal problems of depression, anxiety, of mistrustfulness. They may live a faily productive life, but they will not be filled with the joy of life. They carry a weight of sorrow.
Another third will grow into individuals who mistreat their own spouse, their own partner, their own children. They will pass along the malignant traits of cruelty, of control and manipulation as a way to feel good for a minute.
But a third of those little children will grow into fine, loving, strong, giving, peaceful people. A third of those who have been wounded and scared will become strong and brave.
Who here, when you were in grade school, had a teacher who had you grow some beans? And some of those beans were not given enough water, and some were given too much light, and some were in the dark?
And those new little plants suffered because of that injury. But did you know that if you give some plants what they need, if you provide for them the succor they need, the fruit they produce can be richer, sweeter, than that fruit from an unwounded plant? Like a bone is strongest at the broken place, a child who moves through pain can be the strongest most loving and peaceful parent and partner later in life.
Now, That is the good news.
But the bad news gets worse:
I’m sorry to say, this violence committed by those of our own species, Does not limit itself to one on one, or one on three, or one on five.
It Gets worse. I have to tell you some sorrowful information.
Some of our very own species
have chosen to hurt not just families, but entire populations, cultures, races, and now today we speak of this diabolical system of enslaving an entire gender, our own women, and the children, our own children!
The US department of Health and Human Services states that of the 16,000 people trafficked into us each year, half are children!
We are asking people to understand that slavery still exists today; in fact, according to a recent New York Times article, if you count the number of women and children in bonded labor, domestic slavery or sexual slavery today, there are more slaves in the world than at any other time in history.”
– Charlotte Bunch
In the Ukrain, for example, 400,000 women were trafficked in the past ten years
There is a huge market for
• trafficking in children, sale of babies, and illegal adoptions
• kidnapping of children for
• child pornography
• sex tourism in certain countries
• trading in body parts
• smuggling of immigrants
• street prostitution
• serial murder of prostitutes
• domestic trafficking for forced labor
• juvenile runaways who are drawn into prostitution
• domestic abuse of mail order brides
• homeless citizens who are trafficked for forced
labor
The U.S. State Department estimates that between 600,000 and 800,000
persons were trafficked across national borders worldwide
in one year (2004).
Eighty percent of these were female,
70 percent of whom were trafficked
for sexual exploitation.
Of those trafficked into the US, most originate in poorer countries, where human trafficking has
become a significant source of income. Income for who?
Besides trafficking, there is the constant abuse on a large scale of women and children throughout the globe.
One reporter
wrote of Congo---“The United Nations report that government troops—even UN so called peacekeepers! are also among those raping and killing women in remote villages in the Congo. Isn’t anyone in power angry and disgusted enough to act?
One of the women who had been raped in the Congo said: “a dead rat is worth more than the body of a woman.” The repeated violations, carried out with impunity, are staggering and should shame all humanity.
Congo: 5 million dead!
This is the sadness around us.
Ask your self, why is there such a market?
Why is there such a market for killing, for sexual trafficking, for child abuse?
Why is there a giant market for child pornography?
Who is driving this abomination?
This is a spiritual wasteland!
In this spiritual wasteland, are you going to stand, are you going to allow your light to illuminate those around you? Now is the time. Now one must choose. Will you help in forcing the media to address this, to make it our national priority or will fear lead you to lose your self?
This is the time to draw the line. It isn’t hard to understand- one must treat the other as oneself. Why I even gotta say it!
It is not time to call those who can hear to act uprightly, and to fight for those who cannot?
I know, the battle has been being waged, it never seems to end—
But here is the reassuring part: I know that justice will come. I have no doubt that all is well in the end. The Mills of God Grind exceedingly slow, but they grind exceedingly fine. Everything is alright in the end; if everything is not alright, it is not the end.
Here are some thoughts from others I’d like to share with you:
While you SCREAM at your woman, there’s someone wanting to whisper softly in her ear… While you HUMILIATE, OFFEND and INSULT her, there’s someone wanting to please her and remind her how wonderful she is. While you HURT your woman, there’s someone wanting to love her. While you make your woman CRY there’s someone wanting to make her smile…
None who have always been free can understand the terrible fascinating power of the hope of freedom to those who are not free. – Pearl S. Buck
“What we do for ourselves dies with us. What we do for others and the world remains and is immortal.” -Albert Pine
seasons
are for love and bitterness.
The passing seasons are the walls
that the wounded bounce against,
buttressed,
corralled in the mask of sanity
kept alive and standing
until the searing part of the pain is gone.
Our Souls need the seasons like our Bodies need gravity.
The seasons
are a strange nourishing organic blanket
teaching us the Grace of Time
Until one might stand again
by oneself.
Mary Todd
well, you and i know that we need to educate, spread the word,
encourage the media to cover these topics instead of Charlie sheen, Michael Jackson's Doctor, and LadyFreakinGaga!
please tell me, why the GIGANTIC market for slaves?
who is driving it??
http://www.k-state.edu/womenscenter/GlobalWomen/childabuse.htm
Luncheon and Lecture: Clogged Artery in the Heart of America: An Analysis of Human Trafficking in Kansas. Noon to 2 p.m., Town Hall Room, School of Leadership Studies. Come listen to a Kansas City FBI employee, Wichita immigration attorney, and student researcher talk about human trafficking in Kansas. Part of the Stop Slavery Summit 2011. Sponsored by K-Staters that Care in partnership with the Union Program Council and the School of Leadership Studies.
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| Human trafficking stats global |
