Letters to the Editor

My name is Honey Bee and I am an advocate with the Leon County Domestic Violence Advocate Program. As some of you know, I am the advocate for the elderly when the dreaded curse known as domestic violence rears its ugly head. (And it does that more often than you know!)

I will give you a few statistics:
78% of the prison population
were abused as children
96% of all prostitutes were
victims of child sexual abuse
80% of runaways cite child
abuse as the major reason
they run
Over 55% of all female drug
addicts were sexually abused
as children
More than 2,000 infants and
young children die from
abuse each year
Every 4 seconds a child is
abused
Every 7 minutes a child is
killed from abuse
Every 3 minutes a woman is
killed by violence
A woman is beaten every 9
seconds in the U.S.
Domestic violence is the most
under-reported crime in the
country
On average, 4 women are murdered every day by their male partner in the U.S. Women in the U.S. are in 9 times more danger in their own homes that they are in the street FACTS:

Almost four million women are beaten in their homes every year by their male partners. Battering is not about anger or losing control; it is an intentional choice focused on maintaining power and control in the relationship. Batterers manage not to beat their bosses or terrorize their friends when they are angry.

Because violence inflicted on a woman by her partner is treated much differently than violence inflicted by a stranger, batterers are not always arrested.

Batterers generally lead ‘normal’ lives except for their unwillingness to stop their violence and controlling behavior in their intimate relationships.

Batterers do not batter because they are crazy or mentally ill. IT IS ALWAYS A CHOICE! Ask me if I believe these statistics and facts; my answer is YES! I was a victim because my Mom lived a life of horror. We children lived it right along with her, fearing every day that she might not survive the daily battering, and then where would we be? My

father’ separated us from family by moving hundreds of miles away when 30-40 miles didn’t give him enough

cover’. The promises that the abuse would “not ever happen again” were all lies. When an officer did come because the neighbors called (we never had a phone), he was the most convincing liar you ever saw and they left. And on and on and on.

FACT: I am no longer

victim, but a SURVIVOR! You can be one, too! There is help available and it is all free. “There truly is life after domestic Violence!” Honey Bee Morris