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Join V Day Efforts to Stop Violence Against Women and Children
(by Lucy Nichol Montpelier - February 13, 2013)
Join V Day Efforts to Stop Violence Against Women and Children
Editor:
This is the 15th anniversary of marking Feb. 14th as “V Day,” a day to remember the violence against women and children. Eve Ensler, author and organizer, worked to develop the “City of Joy” in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a revival center for women victims of sexual abuse. It was there that V Day was conceived.
It has been relatively easy for us in the United States to dismiss accounts of brutal murder in India, Pakistan and the Congo, but recent events have shaken our complacency. It is not unusual to read in the Times Argus stories about molestation, rape and even murder perpetrated in our own communities.
Rape is an issue that few people want to talk about. More often that not, women in the armed forces, in a work situation, or the many immigrant field workers will not report to the authorities for fear of job retribution. How fair is this?
Erika Eichelberger, writing in The Nation, reports that there are some 630,000 female migrant farm workers in the U.S., and at least 60% are undocumented and afraid of deportation if they speak up. When interviewed, 80% of female farmworkers reported being sexually assaulted or harassed. Many feel that rape comes with the job, and they need money to send home to family.
The law that would have helped undocumented women, “The Violence Against Women Act,” was allowed to expire in the current House of Representatives. This law came up for authorization every five years since signed by Clinton in 1994. It finally passed the Senate Judiciary Committee, but House Republicans wanted fewer protections for women, and the bill was allowed to die in the 112th Congress. Senator Leahy was a sponsor of the bill, and has said that he still has nightmares of the domestic violence scenes he saw when he was a prosecutor in Vermont.
There are many reasons to support the planned V Day event in central Vermont. To quote Eve Ensler, “We are calling for, inviting, challenging one billion women, and all the people who love them - and we hope many men will join the campaign – to walk off their jobs, walk out of their schools, walk out of their homes, and gather in fields, stadiums, churches, blocks, wherever, beaches, and dance, until the violence stops.”
Please join us on February 14th, 11:30am in front of the State House.
Lucy Nichol
Montpelier
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