The following is the speech given by Ana Cooke at the Salvation Inc. fundraiser for the Portland Women's Crisis Line on 9.11.04.
"Welcome to the Salvationinc September 11 community event, on behalf of both Salvationinc and the Portland Women's Crisis Line, I'd like to thank you all for coming out in support.
Though most of you probably don't need to be reminded of this, today is the third anniversary of the September 11th attacks, the worst act of terrorist violence ever committed against the United States. 2,819 people died in the combined attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon that day, and the whole nation experienced the fear, sense of loss and powerlessness that terrorist acts create in human minds.
Unfortunately the suffering didn't stop there. As some of you may know, the number of U.S. soldiers who died during Operation Enduring Freedom, the Bush administration's response to the September 11th attacks, was 22. The other day, the number of soldiers who've died in the War in Iraq, the war spoon-fed to the American people by capitalizing on the fear and grief generated by September 11th, reached over 1,000. The estimated number of civilian casualties from the war in Iraq? 11 to 13 thousand.
Disturbing as these statistics are, I'd like to talk to you about a different, yet related set of statistics regarding the prevalence of Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault in our society. On average, more than three women are murdered by their husbands or boyfriends in this country every day. In 2000, 1,247 women were killed by an intimate partner. That means that, in the three years since the September 11th attacks, an estimated 3,285 women have been killed by an intimate partner. That's about a quarter of the civilian death toll from the Iraqi war, and almost 500 people more than were killed in the September 11th attacks.
Now that's only the number of domestic homicides. Bear with me while I lay out a few more statistics.
Estimates range from 960,000 incidents of violence against a current or former spouse, boyfriend, or girlfriend per year1 to three million women who are physically abused by their husband or boyfriend per year.2
Around the world, at least one in every three women has been beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused during her lifetime.3
Nearly one-third of American women (31 percent) report being physically or sexually abused by a husband or boyfriend at some point in their lives, according to a 1998 Commonwealth Fund survey.4
Nearly 25 percent of American women report being raped and/or physically assaulted by a current or former spouse, cohabiting partner, or date at some time in their lifetime, according to the National Violence Against Women Survey, conducted from November 1995 to May 1996.
Three in four women (76 percent) who reported they had been raped and/or physically assaulted since age 18 said that a current or former husband, cohabiting partner, or date committed the assault.31
One in five (21 percent) women reported she had been raped or physically or sexually assaulted in her lifetime.32
Nearly one-fifth of women (18 percent) reported experiencing a completed or attempted rape at some time in their lives; one in 33 men (three percent) reported experiencing a completed or attempted rape at some time in their lives.33
In 2000, 48 percent of the rapes/sexual assaults committed against people age 12 and over were reported to the police.34
In 2001, 41,740 women were victims of rape/sexual assault committed by an intimate partner.35
http://endabuse.org/resources/facts/
If you're anything like me, statistics like these probably make you think, why? Why do human beings commit such terrible acts against one another? While we might be inclined to point to the individuals themselves, to attribute their actions to a bad upbringing or poor ethics, (and indeed those factors may play a role), it's important that we realize that the reasons for acts of violence in our society, and specifically violence against women, are embedded in the very fabric of our society. The oppression of women, children, and indeed all people of lesser power, has occurred in Western cultures throughout history; and we perpetuate that oppression every day as we participate in the institutions like the government, the media, areas of employment and education- virtually every aspect of our lives. I'll bet just about every woman in the audience has a story about being sexually harassed, abused or raped. The media is fraught with images of violence, specifically images that connect sex and violence. In our society, sexual violence is the norm; it is an association that arises every day and we, as a society, are desensitized to it. And because victim blaming is still a common occurrence, most victims are afraid to come forward, afraid that their experiences won't be acknowledged or heard. There remains an air of silence around this type of violence, and every day this time of violence, this type of terrorism, continues in our homes, in our schools, in our institutions.
Domestic abuse and sexual assault are about an unequal balance of power. Men's ability to assault women is mirrored and supported by their institutionalized authority; the are socialized to be in control and powerful in both intimate relationships and larger social interactions. But it's not simply a matter of men having power over women. Any situation of unequal power, whether it arises as a result of racial, economic, or social inequality, is an opportunity for abuse. Terror is destructive tool; in the hands of "terrorist groups" like Al Queda, in the hands of the corporate media, in the hands of the U.S. government, or in clenched fist of an angry husband, it works to rob humans of their capacity for free, unfettered action. Violence and terrorism come in many forms; whether it occurs in a small cramped apartment and we call it "domestic violence", or on the larger social level as the dominant groups in power oppress and stigmatize people of other races, cultures, ethnicities, genders or nationalities and we call it cultural imperialism, it embodies the same power structure and reflects the same mindset and pension for oppression and violence which our culture engenders.
Which is why organizations like the Portland Women's Crisis Line are so necessary, and why it gives me hope to see so many of you who have come out and are helping to support it. The Crisis Line was founded in 1972 by a small group of women who were concerned about what happened to victims of rape once they attempted to access the legal and medical systems. Like many rape intervention hotlines in the country, it soon became clear from the number of calls related to domestic violence that it was necessary to expand their mission, and so in 1975 the name and mission of the agency was changed.
The mission of the Crisis Line is to operate a 24-hour/day crisis intervention hotline for women and children (and their supportive family and friends) who are victims or survivors of domestic and sexual violence. The PWCL also provides other services, including transportation from danger to safey, in-person advocacy, information and referrals, outreach, and education. We serve the residents of Multnomah, Washington and Clackamas counties, as well as Vancouver, WA. PWCL is a member of the Oregon Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence. It is the oldest crisis line of any sort in Oregon, and one the five oldest domestic and sexual violence crisis lines in the U.S. It is a non-profit organization, which operates with a volunteer board, paid staff and a large pool of volunteer crisis intervention advocates. Its funding comes from a combination of grants, donations, and fundraising events such as this one. It is a community of people like you that keeps the crisis line alive.
I'd like to read to you from the Crisis Line's Statement of Philosophy:
"The Portland Women's Crisis Line is not just a social service agency; it is also a social change organization. We believe that violence against women and children is endemic to our society. By "violence against women and children" we refer both to specific and general abuse of women and children in pornography and other forms of physical violence. We believe that the root causes of this violence stem from a belief in the supremacy of one sex over another. This idea gets legitimized and reproduced by a complex series of institutional and social arrangement that define and treat women and children as subordinate. Our purpose is to not only empower women and children and take back their rights, but to end the oppression and violence, which causes them to seek out our services. " In other words, we hope that one day, through combined efforts towards progressive social change, we can eliminate the need for services like ours and, basically, put ourselves out of business.
Today, on the anniversary of one of the worst acts of violence against the United States in history, I'd like to ask all of you to join the Portland Women's Crisis Line as well as Salvationinc in making a commitment to actively oppose violence on all societal levels; in our intimate relationships, in our homes, in our social lives, in our nation, and on a global scale. In short, the world. Because I think, I hope, that every one here can agree that the number of people who have survived violence, and the number who have fallen victim to it, is high enough."