Marchers Draw Attention To Domestic Violence

Jackie Bolden of Amarillo, Texas, stood silently with her arm wrapped around a life-sized wooden figure painted blood red and bearing the name, age and story of Cathy Jean Cox-Barnum, murdered by domestic abuse.

“I’m here to support my daughter,” Bolden said, pointing to the silhouette, one of 1,500 “Silent Witnesses” that were the centerpiece of Saturday’s “March to End the Silence.”

Thousands of men, women and children - some, like Bolden, wearing T-shirts and buttons with pictures of their loved ones on them - came to the nation’s capital to take part in the event organized by the Silent Witnesses National Initiative.

“We would like to let America know that we are marching to end the silence on domestic violence and we’re working together to bring peace home,” said Janet Hagberg, co-founder of the initiative.

Organizers for the event, held as part of Domestic Violence Awareness Month, say FBI statistics show that 1,500 women are murdered each year by husbands or boyfriends.

The National Mall was a sea of red as representatives from 50 states and several countries carried the Silent Witnesses from the Washington Monument to the West Front of the Capitol.

Trudging through mud from the previous night’s rain, advocates, survivors and family members chanted, “Red, yellow, black, white, all women, same fight.”

At the end of the daylong event, all the Silent Witness silhouettes were assembled around the Capitol reflecting pool and a candlelight memorial service was held.

Emphasizing that domestic violence is just not a problem in the United States, Joy Basdeo, chairwoman of 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence in the Cayman Islands, said that in 1995 there were 400 incidents of domestic violence reported in a three-month period in her country.

“That was the catalyst to make us realize we had swept this issue under the carpet too long and it was time to bring it to light,” she said.