Students Take Back the Night to the Beat of a Solitary Drum
To the low beat of a solitary drum, La Crosse community members and university students made their way down the sidewalks of La Crosse to show support for domestic violence victims.
The walk for domestic violence and abuse started at the clock tower in the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse courtyard. Students from surrounding universities and many members of the community met to raise awareness for the violence and to honor survivors everywhere.
The drum was heard for blocks as the group travelled the streets of La Crosse. It was cold and it was quiet, despite the number of young children parents had brought along.
At the UW-L clock tower, the leader of the group read some statistics about domestic violence and gave a summary of the route they would take through the streets to get to Viterbo.
Upon arriving at Viterbo, the sidewalk was lined with white paper bags with electric candles inside of them. On several, there were little phrases written for encouragement and peace. Walkers followed the candle-lit path all the way to the Nursing Center doors. Event organizers had set up two photo booths and a table with pledges.
The first booth was well lit with a blue backdrop. The group photos at this booth had props that looked like a Polaroid picture with a hashtag. These hashtags were meant to connect everyone on social media to promote the event.
The second booth had a different intent. The backdrop was deep purple with strings of lights outlining the edges to give a sunken effect. Here, the prop was a whiteboard that read, “Consent is . . . not sexy, it’s necessary.”
On the table, there were pledges of awareness for participants to sign in order to “set the expectation” for domestic violence.
There was not much time spent at Viterbo, only about half an hour. When the time was up, the group continued their walk towards Western Technical College. There was a stage set up at Western where people could stand up and tell their stories if they so choose.
There were only four students who were able share their stories, and after the stories were told there was a poetry reading.
I spoke to Viterbo student Hannah McDaniel about her experience on the walk. When asked about why she was participating she said, “. . . I have friends who have been affected by domestic violence . . . I believe that [by] spreading awareness that domestic violence happens . . . we can work together to end it.”
Her most memorable moment was the reading of the poem “Blue Blanket” and the survivor stories at WTC; “I took away that there are so many people who have been affected by domestic violence. It’s not something that is typically talked about, so I think it’s really great that UWL, Viterbo, and Western Tech could come together to create a safe space to process how prevalent domestic violence is.”
Every nine seconds, a woman in the United States becomes a victim of domestic violence. It has become the leading cause of injury for women above car accidents, muggings, and rapes combined.
Every day in the United States, more than three women are murdered by their husbands or their boyfriends.
Statistics can be shared all day long, but listening is not going to do anything. Knowing that 10 million children witness some form of domestic violence annually is not going to do anything.
Awareness needs to be spread. Action needs to be taken. It should not be that at least one in every three women around the world has been beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused during her lifetime by, statistically speaking, a family member.
In the words of Andrea Gibson in her poem “Blue Blanket,” “Tonight/She’s not asking/what you’re gonna tell your daughter,/She’s asking what/you’re going to teach/your son.”