ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, February 27, 1996 TAG: 9602270081
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
HOME SAFE Products in Roanoke has been drawn, inadvertently, into the campaign to make homes safer for women and children because its toll-free telephone number is so similar to the national Domestic Violence Hot Line. Employees are giving out the right number to callers trying to reach the hot line.
You can help, too. Anyone willing to acknowledge that violence in homes is not uncommon and should not be tolerated can take a stand against it. One important way is to train a new generation of children that domestic violence is always wrong. There is no excuse for it. And it is not the victim's fault.
The Family Violence Prevention Fund suggests that adults take some time to teach youngsters a couple of basic rules for civilized behavior in the too-often aptly named war between the sexes.
* A boy should be taught from little on up not to hit a girl or a woman. Explain to him that when he grows up, he will be bigger and stronger than most women, and can really hurt them if he strikes them - and that is a crime.
* A girl should be taught that violence is never acceptable in a relationship, no matter what problems an abuser might be struggling with, or what the victim may have done to make the other person angry. Anger and frustration are inevitable in every relationship; turning to violence to vent these feelings is not - and is, in fact, criminal behavior.
Of course, the ones committing violence aren't always male. And children often are victims themselves. Children are victims, too, in the sense that domestic violence tends to be passed on from one generation to the next. The abused become abusers.
Children need to hear these lessons often, from parents, from teachers and religious leaders, from any adults who have some kind of guiding role in their lives. This should be talked about at school assemblies, scout meetings, wherever youngsters gather.
Domestic violence is a hidden crime, difficult to address because of both the intimate circumstances in which it occurs, and the intricacies of the relationships among those involved. Like all the dark corners of human nature, though, secrecy and ignorance are its allies. The bright light of public awareness can, with the proper resolve, light a way out for its victims.
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