Silence Hides Violence

"It takes a village" is more than a campaign slogan for the latest social awareness outreach program.  It is a constant that needs to always be in the forefront guiding our actions in daily living.  Unfortunately I have recently been made acutely aware of this reality as a victim of domestic violence.

This past week my 86-year-old mother was threatened and abused by another family member.  She is not the only family member to have been targeted for later reprisal and abuse.  This recent event is not an aberrant, isolated behavior of the perpetrator.  There has been a long history of violence spanning several decades.  

The family's silence has been miss-understood by the abusing member as acceptance.  The real reasons for the family's silence has been not solely from fear of the abusive family member, but also out of a sense of love, patience, hope, guilt, and embarrassment.  Surely the aberrant will chart a new course of civility.   

Our decades of inaction found us on Thursday in the Office for Domestic Violence, staring at a wall sign that reads; "Silence Hides Violence".

It is true!