Take the Pledge Against Domestic Violence
October 22, 2003
President George Bush recently issued a proclamation commemorating October as Domestic Violence Awareness Month in which he placed all blame for domestic violence squarely on men. Promising to "throw the book" at men who abuse their wives, he said "women and children are facing dangers in this country, and they need strong allies." Bush's Attorney General John Ashcroft is the leading voice in a new series of television commercials airing nationwide which identify only men as abusers and challenge men to "Take the pledge Against DV."
However, this pledge will not solve the problem of domestic violence in the United States because it ignores half of the victims and a third of those suffering serious harm--men. The pledge also ignores the current epidemic of false charges of domestic violence. We ask that people take the following pledge instead:
"I pledge to work against ALL domestic violence, whether committed by a male or a female
I pledge to raise my voice when I see a man using his strength to abuse a woman, or when I see a woman using the police to abuse a man.
I pledge to raise my voice in protest whenever I see an innocent man evicted from his own house because his spouse makes unsubstantiated claims that he abused or threatened to abuse her.
I pledge to raise my voice in protest when I see a man or a woman justify physical abuse by saying "she or he had it coming."
I pledge to raise my voice when I see a woman abusing her male partner and then playing the victim.
I pledge to raise my voice when I see a man or a woman use alcoholism or substance abuse as an "excuse" for their violence.
I pledge to help fathers who are trapped in abusive relationships because they cannot leave their abusers and leave their children in harm's way and cannot leave with their children because they will be arrested for kidnapping.
I pledge to raise my voice in protest whenever I see a woman or a family court drive a father out of his children's lives on false allegations of domestic violence.
I pledge to raise my voice when I see a man or a woman use his or her economic power as a way of abusing and controlling a spouse.
I promise to raise my voice in protest when I see mothers--statistically the most common abusers of children-- abuse their children and get away with it by hiding behind the saintly mantle of motherhood
I pledge to teach my sons and daughters to work together with both
men and women to end domestic violence."
