Normally, I write about politics. Politics is important. No doubt about it. It’s what drives the country, for better or worse. I’ll go with the latter.
And it’s what we write and read about on a daily basis. Some earn a good living doing it. But it’s not the be all, end all – or shouldn’t be. Family and friends are what should be most important and should trump everything – but God. When it comes down to it, it should be the care and love of our fellow man (and woman), not our political party.
But what happens when you discover that a friend or loved one has suffered abuse at the hands of a spouse or someone else he or she trusted?
My first instinct as a sheepdog is to see to it that the offender doesn’t see the light of the following day, but then I come to my senses.
As an aside – the definition of sheepdog, explained by Col. David Grossman, is as follows:
“If you have no capacity for violence then you are a healthy productive citizen: a sheep. If you have a capacity for violence and no empathy for your fellow citizens, then you have defined an aggressive sociopath – a wolf. But what if you have a capacity for violence, and a deep love for your fellow citizens? Then you are a sheepdog, a warrior, someone who is walking the hero’s path.”
Many of us, I dare to say the majority, live our whole lives without knowing someone who has been abused, or if we do, aren’t willing or capable of doing something about it. Well, I intend to do something.
I, like most males (I hope), was brought up understanding that a man shall never strike a woman – ever – I mean, short of being confronted by a female assassin. That happens to me every week! No, it doesn’t.
But sadly, it seems, many are not like you and me. Many cowardly dirtbags either can’t control their tempers or find it somehow enjoyable to abuse women.
For the first time in my life, I’ve been exposed to this horror – the abuse of a dear friend – and feel compelled to write about it and try to help. I cover her specific situation in the link below, as well as ask for your help. The tragedy suffered by untold women who are and have been abused, and the scars that some suffer for the balance of their time on Earth, can be permanently debilitating. And the more I look into it, the more enraged I become.
I guess I’ve been living under a rock for most of life, because if the statistics are anywhere even close to being accurate, folks, we’ve got a problem. I’m not going to go all hyperbolic and call it an epidemic, but it is serious, especially when it lands close to home. And frankly, I don’t know how I’ve avoided being exposed earlier.
Here are just a few of the statistics I gleaned from the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NCADV) website:
On a typical day, there are more than 20,000 phone calls placed to domestic violence hotlines nationwide.
One in four women and one in seven men have been victims of severe physical violence by an intimate partner in their lifetime.
Intimate partner violence accounts for 15 percent of all violent crime.
These are not the bogus feminist calls that claim harassment and abuse is merely asking a woman out. This is the real thing. And if you know of anyone in this situation, it is your duty to help.
Here in New Hampshire, “Domestic violence-related homicides made up 59 percent of the state’s homicides over the last seven years, according to a biennial report from the New Hampshire Domestic Fatality Review Committee. In 2014 and 2015, domestic violence-related homicides represented 62 percent of all homicides in the state.”
And here in New Hampshire is where my friend and her kids and her two roommates, a woman and her daughter who have also suffered abuse, live.
And this is where I ask for your help, by directing you to click on the following link.
Help my friend save her house. There you may read of her personal challenges and her struggle just to keep her home.
Please help my friend Lisa and her family to stay in her home, and not allow her abusive ex-husband to win again.
