Seasons....

As I sit here at my computer this morning, I am fully aware that the seasons are changing. It is only 42 degrees outside and it has been raining. Soon the leaves will be changing colors and then soon after that, the trees will be bare. Winter will be here shortly.



My work and travel schedule is full for the next two months. Next week I will be in Seattle for a conference on Battered Women and the Effects on their Children. Shortly after I get back, I will be teaching in three different places around Wyoming on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault.

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

The Silent Witness State Initiative will be in Jackson Hole, this year. I have attended one National Initiative in Washington D.C. and almost all of the State Initiatives since 1999. It is a hard ceremony to attend because it seems like going to a funeral every year. There is a silhouette for every woman murdered in Wyoming in a domestic violence homicide. Many of you are aware that our sister Beckie and her three sons were murdered in November of 1990 by her 15 year old stepson. This is the reason I got into the field of Victim Services and have continued it as my life's work.

The project started in 1990 as an awareness campaign to help reduce the rate of domestic violence homicides nationwide. I am not sure if it has actually helped reduce DV homicides but, I do know since its inception it has helped get more people and more disciplines involved in the work.

As long as there are people who think they have the right to have power and control over other people and that they are entitled, there will be domestic violence.

The seasons change, the cycle of life continues and there is nothing we can do to change what is out of our own personal control; we can change our own perspective on violence and choose not to tolerate violence in any form in our own life.

Celebrating life,

Jo