Candlelight vigil honors domestic abuse victims

By on October 26, 2010 10:05 AM CST
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A woman holds a candle for 2008’s candlelight vigil for victims of domestic violence. / CW File

A candlelight vigil will be held tonight at 6 at Denny Chimes in commemoration of Dating and Domestic Violence Awareness month.

The vigil invites the campus community to stand together in solemnity for victims of dating and domestic violence and raise awareness of this abuse, according to a UA press release.

Lindsay Mims, student coordinator for the event, said it is important to raise awareness and show support for victims of dating and domestic violence.

“Oftentimes, college students tend to ignore issues that they think don’t pertain to them,” Mims said, “It’s important that we get information out there and let college students know that domestic violence is something that many people our age have gone through, are going through, or are at risk for going through in the future.”

The ceremony is run by student speakers from different population groups on campus, said Maria Perez-Fisher, peer education program coordinator for the Women’s Resource Center.

This year, Caneeka Miller, a UA alum and poet, will be the keynote speaker at the ceremony. Miller has released a book of poetry about relationships and domestic violence, Perez-Fisher said. Miller will focus on being a secondary victim of domestic violence.

Other speakers at the vigil will ask fellow students to step up and speak out against violence and lead them in a pledge against it, Perez-Fisher said. In addition, a current UA student will perform a song she has written about domestic violence.

Perez-Fisher said students should attend the event because it will help them understand what the impact of violence is around their direct community here at the Capstone and when they leave the University.

“Violence will affect everyone in their lifetime in some way,” Perez-Fisher said. “Whether they are a victim, a friend of a victim, someone who knows someone, witnessed the violence. It is important also to be present to represent the voices of those who cannot be present and also to show your fellow students that you will not stand for violence and you will be there in support for awareness.”

In 2009, 40 domestic-violent related deaths were reported based previous documentation of violence and confession, Perez-Fisher said.

In the United States, a woman is beaten every nine seconds and four women are murdered by their intimate partner every day, Perez-Fisher said.

One in four women will experience domestic violence in their lifetimes, Mims said.

“I have three roommates,” Mims said. “It’s crazy for me to think about that statistic.”

The most common age group of dating and domestic violence victims is 19 to 29, Perez-Fisher said.

Dating and domestic violence is not just physical abuse, Perez-Fisher said.

“The abuse starts with emotional and verbal [abuse], which are linear, and you can’t have one without the other,” she said.

  • Ray

    Credible research overwhelmingly shows that the ratio of d.v. is at least 50/50 between women & men. http://tinyurl.com/3sakk According to one study by researchers who work at the CDC, in 70% of domestic violence incidents, where the domestic violence is not mutual, it’s women who initiate the domestic violence. http://tinyurl.com/yzm9xhe The taxpayer funded domestic violence industry has largely mischaracterized the true nature of d.v. from the beginning and continues to mislead the public. D.V. law follows a gender feminist agenda/ideology over facts in evidence and does great harm to many innocent men (and also many battering women who need help) as shown in “Los Misandry” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAmOxvudpF8

  • Ray

    V.P. Biden recently called violence against women, “the very worst abuse.” The very worst abuse is valuing one life less than another for having been born the wrong sex. Under Biden’s Violence Against Women Act the wrong sex is men. Shelter and services are virtually non-existent for male victims of domestic violence so those options out of a bad relationship, that are routinely available to women, are very often not available to men. Men wind up gender profiled and often falsely accused by the taxpayer funded, d.v. industry, because of gender feminist ideology controlling the d.v. industry. Men are often battered by domestic violence, and then battered again by the taxpayer funded, domestic violence industry.

  • Ray

    According to the U.S. Dept of Health and Human Services and DOJ statistics, more kids are killed by neglect and abuse in a year (1,760 in 2007), than all the female intimate partner homicides in a year. Mothers are the single largest group of kid killers, according to HHS and they have a rate twice that of fathers. Nowhere near the money is spent to protect kids from kid killing mothers as is spent by the domestic violence industry to protect women. A lot of innocent men are witch-hunted by the corrupt, gender feminist influenced, taxpayer funded, domestic violence industry. Involving the corrupt d.v. industry in an attempt to prevent abusive and neglectful deaths of children is a big mistake. No place better exemplifies the corruption of the taxpayer funded, domestic violence industry than “Los Misandry.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAmOxvudpF8

  • jcollins

    I attended the vigil. I applaud the WRC for coordinating the event. HOWEVER, the main focus was male of female domestic/dating violence ONLY. Many groups did not have a voice at the vigil, and neither were any people allowed to step up and speak out for themselves or other victims.
    Domestic/dating violence does not just happen against women, nor does it ONLY happen in heterosexual relationships. Domestic/dating violence happens and can happen to ANYONE! It does not know the boundaries of orientation, gender, race, creed, or disability. I believed that the event could have been coordinated to include other groups on campus to stand in representation of themselves, and not just the large showing of Greek/Panhellenic students who, for them, this is a service project. Many people were not represented by the speakers or the vigil.

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