Time For The Purple Ribbons

As our economy worsens, so too do stress levels run concurrently higher than the norm, as we all fret over the miserable state of our finances and the limits increasingly forced on our day to day lives. And, incidents of Domestic Violence spike up noticeably everywhere. As this is National Domestic Violence Awareness month, I'd like to share a bit here.
My family has a long history with this topic, as my big sister Rebecca was strangled to death in her own bed on the morning of September 18, 2000, by her then boyfriend, Benjamin Mills. In the years since, we have, operating under the name Rebecca's Voice, done more than our fair share in circulating petitions (which I personally believe are completely useless) and organizing demonstrations and rallies, all for the sake of fixing inept flaws in the system that allow for no real support for victims.
We are still waiting for an adequate warrant tracking system for Louisville, Kentucky (the setting of Rebecca's murder), as well as any prioritizing of warrants whatsoever. The city has made countless promises in the past decade, particularly after we uncovered a then backlog of over 70,000 unserved warrants (dating back roughly 30 years). The city's then response was to simply purge the system- deleting all of those pesky embarrassments and proudly and publicly seeing nothing offensive with the decision to do so. Meanwhile, my complaint was in wondering how many of those unserved warrants could be traced back to someone else's Rebecca.
However, I am glad to report that Louisville has at least initiated a new electronic EPO system. In theory this will allow for the system to inch along that much quicker, provided that Metro Louisville officers honor the warrants and actually serve them. Perhaps longtime police chief Robert White's son could even be the first recipient of the new electronic Emergency Protective Order. That's right, the chief of police's son was just busted for an exceptionally brutal case of Domestic Violence. Obviously, the department needs no extra watchdogging to see justice rightfully served, I'm sure.
I've been obsessively studying national statistics for some time now, and Louisville (pronounced louEVIL)'s police department and city hall both are particularly grossly negligent and incompetent in their understanding of Domestic Violence-related issues. Eight or nine years ago, the city and county governments were in the process of merging. This was near the start of the royal mess of unserved warrants story, and so city and county were each trying desperately to throw the blame back to each other. I was recently reminded of the predilection for red tape in a news report from Topeka, Kansas. Apparently the city board saw fit to repeal their own Domestic Violence legislation, as both city and county governments are pointing to each other to pick up the cost of prosecution on such cases. To save money, they have rendered Domestic Violence technically legal. Absolutely abysmal, how these elected officials can live with themselves.

Things do not have to be this dark though, ya know. These are not just our sisters, our mothers, our daughters. Domestic Violence can affect anyone, any race, creed, sex or social class. If our government powers disappoint us so, then we do still have networks that we can rely on.
Such as Women of Wonder Day. Andy Mangels, after five great years of overseeing the annual Wonder Woman Day charity auctions, has rebranded his efforts (no doubt to avoid litigation from DC Entertainment), and I invite all to check out his website. Volunteer if you're in the area. If you are an artist who would like to contibute original work to WWD, then know that your art will go to a great cause, with every single cent going to charity. Specifically- crisis prevention hotlines, shelters, etc.

The true test of one's mettle is when the chips are down, regardless of what circumstances demand you be. We build our world ourselves.