Conversation, Vision, Action
Blog / Produced by The High Calling
Three artists teaching at an arts conference grabbed lunch together, and talk turned to news reports of women killed at the hands of husbands, boyfriends, close acquaintances. Over iced tea and salads, while restaurant chatter wove white noise around them, the women spoke of domestic violence and the ugliness of the headlines. In only one year, 26 women—mothers, wives, daughters—had all died violently in a state otherwise known for low homicide rates.
More disturbing were the faces in the statistics:
The artists’ conversation led to a single question. Could anything hopeful or healing come from these tragedies?
Days later, when an ad hoc group of women writers and artists met over a brown bag lunch to brainstorm how to speak against the domestic violence, a vision emerged: 26 free-standing, life-sized, red wooden figures, each one bearing the name of a woman who once lived, worked, had neighbors, friends, family, and children—and whose life ended violently. The figures became Silent Witnesses. A 27th figure was added—the uncounted woman—representing the unacknowledged deaths of women.
The brown bag lunch discussion was in August 1990. By February 1991, a procession of 500 women carried an exhibit of 27 life-size silent figures into the Minnesota State Capitol Rotunda. The Silent Witness National Initiative is now at work in all 50 states and in 21 countries. In Minnesota, the birthplace of the Silent Witnesses, domestic violence dropped from 26 killings in 1990 to six in 1996. Twenty attorneys general, six governors, countless legislators, and organizations ranging from two individual homemakers in New Hampshire and Maine to The Junior League, the YWCA, and The National Council of Jewish Women (to name a few) had cooperated to raise awareness and create change.
Three women gathered for lunch. Then writers and artists brainstormed over sandwiches. All these women of faith—Christian, Jewish, or neither—sparked a vision, and women’s lives were forever changed.
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Permission graciously granted by the Silent Witness National Initiative for information used here. For more information on the Initiative, please visit silentwitness.net/index.htm
“Approximately one-third of the men counseled for battering are professional men who are well respected in their jobs and in their communities. These have included doctors, physiologists, lawyers, ministers and business executives.” David Adams, “Identifying the Assaultive Husband in Court: You Be the Judge.” Boston Bar Journal, July/August, 1989.
Approximately two-thirds of reported domestic violence incidents are classified as "simple assaults," a misdemeanor rather than a felony. But up to 50 percent of these "simple assaults" result in physical injuries that are as, or more, serious than 90 percent of all rapes, robberies, and aggravated assaults. (NOW Legal Defense Fund)
More disturbing were the faces in the statistics:
Donna, shot in the head by her husband, at home at the time with her two children, ages 5 and 9.
Barbara, employed in the County Government Center. Her throat was slashed as she arrived for work in the very court building she had entered one day before for a protection order that was signed two hours after she died.
Lucy, mother of three, leaving home, holding the hand of her seven-year-old son, when her husband put a gun to her head.
Veronica, a retired high school teacher whose husband kicked her to death. He was charged with second-degree murder and later released.
The artists’ conversation led to a single question. Could anything hopeful or healing come from these tragedies?
Days later, when an ad hoc group of women writers and artists met over a brown bag lunch to brainstorm how to speak against the domestic violence, a vision emerged: 26 free-standing, life-sized, red wooden figures, each one bearing the name of a woman who once lived, worked, had neighbors, friends, family, and children—and whose life ended violently. The figures became Silent Witnesses. A 27th figure was added—the uncounted woman—representing the unacknowledged deaths of women.
Photo is of "Silent Witness Exhibit" in the Rotunda of the Russell Office Building, U. S. Senate, October 1994 at the request of Senator Paul Wellstone to help pass the Violence Against Women Act. (Permission to use photo "Silent Witness" by Janet O. Hagberg, Executive Director)
The brown bag lunch discussion was in August 1990. By February 1991, a procession of 500 women carried an exhibit of 27 life-size silent figures into the Minnesota State Capitol Rotunda. The Silent Witness National Initiative is now at work in all 50 states and in 21 countries. In Minnesota, the birthplace of the Silent Witnesses, domestic violence dropped from 26 killings in 1990 to six in 1996. Twenty attorneys general, six governors, countless legislators, and organizations ranging from two individual homemakers in New Hampshire and Maine to The Junior League, the YWCA, and The National Council of Jewish Women (to name a few) had cooperated to raise awareness and create change.
Three women gathered for lunch. Then writers and artists brainstormed over sandwiches. All these women of faith—Christian, Jewish, or neither—sparked a vision, and women’s lives were forever changed.
**********************************************
Permission graciously granted by the Silent Witness National Initiative for information used here. For more information on the Initiative, please visit silentwitness.net/index.htm
“Approximately one-third of the men counseled for battering are professional men who are well respected in their jobs and in their communities. These have included doctors, physiologists, lawyers, ministers and business executives.” David Adams, “Identifying the Assaultive Husband in Court: You Be the Judge.” Boston Bar Journal, July/August, 1989.
Approximately two-thirds of reported domestic violence incidents are classified as "simple assaults," a misdemeanor rather than a felony. But up to 50 percent of these "simple assaults" result in physical injuries that are as, or more, serious than 90 percent of all rapes, robberies, and aggravated assaults. (NOW Legal Defense Fund)
The demands, pressures and stress of work can put a huge strain on relationships with our coworkers. This 4-day plan from Theology of Work Project and Workmatters provides simple steps you can take to be more loving to your coworkers that will transform those relationships and increase both joy and productivity at work.