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After Four Generations Suffer Domestic Violence, Author Launches
Campaign to Raise Awareness
Washington, DC (BlackNews.com) - "I was sixteen years
old the first time my left eye was blackened, my lip split. The culprit:
my seventeen-year old boyfriend in a jealous rage because he thought
that I was seeing another boy. Not true, but by the time he folded me in
his arms and begged for forgiveness, the swelling was already rising."
This is my story, one that is too often told. Stories that fester from
women who come from all walks of life young, old, the haves and the
have-nots; domestic violence has no barriers, offers no dividing lines.
It rears its ugly head in every culture and every community. It's sad to
say that it's on the rise. Domestic violence is one of the leading
causes of emergency room visits by women.
I wish I could say that my story ended that fateful day when the
swelling started to rise. I wish I could say that I had never heard of
or been exposed to domestic violence before I was sixteen. I wish I
could say that this phenomenon did not exist in my family before I was a
stitch in my family's fabric line, a seed in my mother's womb. I wish I
could say that sixty years of domestic violence has not prevailed my
family; but those wishes are just that wishes. I come from a legacy of
women four generations to be exact where every kind of domestic
abuse be it physical, emotional, mental, or sexual has been at the
hem of the fabric of my family.
In Color Me Butterfly, I tell the unnerving, real and brutal
accounts of how my grandmother, my mother, myself and even my daughter,
have suffered at the hands of domestic violence, literally. It seems to
be a vicious cycle that won't turn loose my family. It is a truth that
has gone untold for many, many years; and it has become the match that
has lit a fire beneath my torch; a torch that I have vowed to carry a
crusade in its own right to tell my story, spread the word, and raise
awareness.
Intimate Partner and Domestic Violence are issues that are deep rooted
in our society. It makes no distinction for age, nationality, religion
or creed. It crosses all ethnicity and cultural boundaries. Its face is
everywhere, is everyone's. Nearly 5.3 million incidents of intimate
partner violence occurs each year amongst U.S. women ages 18 and
older.(1) Intimate partner violence results in nearly 2 million injuries
and 1,300 deaths nationwide every 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) These statistics are not few and far in
between. There are countless stats that force us to finally come to
terms with this horrible, horrible epidemic. Women are dying. Our
children are dying. Our hopes are dying. And if we continue to fail to
recognize that Intimate Partner and Domestic Violence are lurking
beneath the texture of our society, we will have failed these women. We
will have failed our children. We will have failed our children's
children. I would go as far to say that an initiative as great and
powerful as breast cancer awareness needs to be sparked for domestic
violence. It's time we raise our voices and blow the cap off this
phenomenon. Far too often, we turn on our televisions and see reports of
women being devoured by this epidemic. Join me in helping to raise
awareness and put a stop to this tireless reality.
About the Saving Grace Campaign
The purpose of the Saving Grace Campaign is to
heighten Intimate Partner and Domestic Violence awareness by going into
those places where it is too often ignored or overlooked. Places like
high schools, colleges and universities, churches and the workplace.
This campaign is about ensuring that everyone understands the
seriousness of domestic violence and the impact it has on our
communities. It's about spreading the word. It's about effecting
'Change.'
To learn more about the Saving Grace Campaign, Color
Me Butterfly and the Author, visit
www.colormebutterfly.com
About the Author
L. Y. Marlow is the third generation of women in her
family to survive domestic violence. She is the sponsor of the Saving
Grace Campaign, has created a Domestic Violence resource and support
website and is the author of Color Me Butterfly, a book about four
generations of women who embraced a legacy of unconditional love,
old-fashioned family values and faith to triumph over a life plagued
with unspeakable abuse and pain.
"Compelling Story! A powerful book about a subject that, all too often,
goes undisclosed." -- M. Scott Carter, The Norman Transcript
"Thought provoking and emotionally wrenching...an unflinching account of
a family's history and the strong women who overcame decades of abuse."
-- The Manhattan Mercury.
"Remarkable...Powerful...A brave story to tell." -- Indigo
Color Me Butterfly (A true story of courage, hope and transformation)
L.Y. Marlow
Publication Date: March 2007
ISBN: 0-9787320-5-7; 978-0-9787320-5-9
422 pages, $14.95
www.colormebutterfly.com
Available wherever books are sold
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