Do you know a person who…
- Believes he has the right to rule over his wife, girlfriend, and/or family members with an iron fist?
- Monitors and controls the thoughts and behaviors of his wife or girlfriend?
- Criticizes, belittles, and shames people in his family or household?
- Isolates his wife, girlfriend, and/or family from outside help and resources?
- Expects his wife, girlfriend, or family members to serve as sex objects for his pleasure?
- Uses threats, intimidation, force, and/or violence (emotional, physical, or sexual) against his wife, girlfriend, and/or family members?
If so, you know a tyrant.
People like this are around us daily, in our neighborhoods, communities, and possibly in our homes. The question is, what should we do about it?
When we, as a nation, seek to deal with a tyrant in a foreign land, we take the following steps:
- Label the tyrant as a tyrant
- Identify the crimes against humanity committed by the tyrant
- Designate resources to stop human tragedy and save lives
- Isolate the tyrant politically and geographically
- Remove the tyrant from his safe haven (Note: we do not remove the innocent and traumatized victims)
- Administer swift punishment for the committed crimes
I believe it is time we do the same for the tyrants in our own midst. Some men are controlling, manipulating, hurting, imprisoning, raping, and in some cases killing women and children in their own homes. We as a society need to root these tyrants out of our midst and save the victims from additional harm and suffering.
October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Please do something during this October, and perhaps every month after that, to save the domestic violence victims around us from the abuse of tyrants. Here are a few examples of what you might do:
- Stand up for women and children whenever the chance arises.
- Donate to organizations that help victims of domestic violence.
- Contact lawmakers and ask them to allocate more resources for removing tyrants and aiding the victims of domestic violence.
- Wear a purple ribbon in October to raise awareness of domestic violence.
- Talk to others about the problem; see what you can do in your communities to address the issue of domestic violence.
- At the very least, ‘Like’ this post to spread the word!