It frustrates me, as I know it frustrates and angers many others, that VAWA was not reauthorized. As an advocate, I’m frustrated because this limits resources I can suggest, and as a survivor of violence, it just irritates me on the basis that politicians seem, after 19 years of cooperation, to have allowed themselves to be sidetracked away from discussions of human misery and human survival. VAWA had become very misunderstood in recent months. The media treated it as though it were new and emergent legislation, when in reality, it had been in place for the past two decades, and had been authorized under bipartisan agreement. Sadly, I don’t know what this is going to mean in the long-term future. Is it possible that private institutions will take up the cause? I can only hope.
Of course, we can make the argument that it’s not just violence against women, but violence against people. This argument is undeniably true but it still seems ludicrous to me to stop helping one population of survivors just because there are other populations of survivors out there. As you may know from reading this blog, I’m a huge advocate of aiding under-served survivor populations, such as men and people who are LGBTQ-identified. This doesn’t mean that women do not deserve assistance in making their survival easier. VAWA was always a good “first-line” step to helping everybody.
Can we send Congress to VAWnet’s 1-hour course on domestic violence? I do realize that there is not realistically time to send everyone in Congress to a one hour training for every important subject that comes up, but seeing as this one is near and dear to my heart, I just want to argue for it a little longer.
Incidentally, January is National Stalking Awareness Month. Even if you can’t get involved on a large scale, you can voice the campaign through social media. There’s even a list of twitter and Facebook status update templates you can use. There is also an interactive quiz to help gauge your level of knowledge on stalking. In light of the VAWA failure, I feel more committed to promoting this month than ever. For example, did you know that only approximately 40% of all who are affected by stalking report to the police? That’s a small percentage and one which deserves attention for better future services.
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