RACHEL ELEIZONDO: Help stop domestic violence: Use your voice, vote

For people who have read my last several columns about domestic violence, who know my tragic story, you might be wondering what you can do. And while you might know about domestic violence awareness, that topic can seem vague. I want you to know that there are action-oriented things that you can do to help with this issue.

The first thing you can do is make sure that you’re supporting victims that you might know. This can be as simple as using language that does not blame the victim. Examples of victim blaming language include things like, “It takes two;” … “They made they bed, now they have to lie in it;” … and “Why don’t they just leave?” We have to make sure we are not coming to conversations with those sorts of responses. We need to be understanding about the complicated nature of domestic violence relationships.

The second thing you can do is to learn the signs of domestic violence (all the signs, even those that don’t include physical violence). This is especially important if you work in a profession like law enforcement, health care, the clergy and other professions that are likely to come in contact with victims and abusers frequently. However, it is not just limited to those professions. We can all be better community members by learning the signs and how we can help.

The third thing you can do is to support organizations that support victims, such as Ruth’s Cottage & the Patticake House in Tifton and Liberty House in Albany. Both of these organizations and others like them across the country need their community members to donate financially and to volunteer their time. Additionally, with Ruth’s Cottage & the Patticake House, you can even support them through Amazon Smile, where a portion of your purchases on Amazon will go toward the nonprofit. To do this, simply visit https://smile.amazon.com/ch/01-0662680. This is at no extra cost to you, so it is a great way to support this organization, even if you are not able to donate funds otherwise.

The fourth thing you can do is to contact your legislators and tell them how important the cause of domestic violence is to you. This is especially important when talking about the topic of my last column: firearms and domestic violence. The Georgia Coalition Against Domestic Violence has pushed for the last several years for a law in the state of Georgia that would call for guns to be seized from abusers who are subject to a temporary protective order and/or have a misdemeanor charge of domestic violence.

As I outlined in my last column, there are valid reasons why we need this. Something like this could have even saved my mother’s life, since my father was subject to a temporary protective order but was still in possession of his guns.

However, politicians get antsy when you bring this up. They worry about funding and endorsements from the NRA. We have to show them that lives like my mother’s matter much more than that. We have to contact them to let them know that we want this bill passed, that we want to see it come into law. We also have to contact our national legislators and let them know that the Violence Against Women’s Act, which is currently stalled in the Senate and has been since 2019, is important to us as well. We also need to do our research on the politicians who have been for and against these bills in the past and take that into consideration when we go to the polls. We have to use our voice and our vote to stop the hurt.

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