Stop the cycle of violence

So far this year, police have responded to 172 domestic violence calls in Taylor County. We are only 288 days into this year, which means that police have visited local homes for this one single reason entirely too many times.

And that’s sad.

October is National Domestic Violence Awareness Month, when all of us need to sit up and take notice of the sad state of our society in which people abuse the very ones they profess to love.

Also during this month, officials try their best to get the word out that it doesn’t have to be this way.

And it doesn’t. All we have to do is stop the cycle.

The “cycle of violence” is simply the transferring of violent behavior from one generation to another.

When those in a generation grow up seeing violence as part of their everyday lives, they, in turn, see that as “normal” and pass that behavior onto their own children.

But domestic abuse is not normal, and neither is it limited to one socio-economic class, or one generation, or one race, or even one community. Abuse can be found among rich and poor, black and white, rural and urban, young and old, educated and not.

And domestic violence isn't just physical assault, though a visible injury or mark such as a black eye or a broken bone is what others more often notice. Emotional and psychological abuse is often just as bad as physical abuse.

That’s what this month is all about — awareness.

Awareness of this problem and what we can do to stop it.

No one should have to live in the shadow of violence.