Community march, vigil supports National Crime Victims Rights Week

Published 8:00 am Wednesday, April 6, 2016

This weekend local entities will join members of the community in a show of unified support for victims of domestic violence. The annual community march and vigil, slated to begin at 11 a.m. Saturday at the old courthouse downtown, is held each year in recognition of National Crime Victims Rights Week. The program will also include speakers and the dissemination of valuable information.

In Georgia alone, there were nearly 40,000 incidents of violent crime reported in 2014, according to statistics from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. We don’t have to look outside our own community to see the impact. All we have to do is reflect on the number of drive-by shootings to see how violent acts can plague communities. Just last month, on Easter Sunday, violence claimed a local life. The impact of this kind of violence reverberates into communities and throughout families.

Whether we realize it or not, we all on some level are impacted by these crimes though our lives and our families may not directly feel the affects. Whether it be homicide, robbery, sexual assault or domestic violence, crime impacts us all and how we see ourselves and our communities, and none of us ever know when these acts will directly affect someone we know.

Children often see first-hand this violence and abuse and are more likely to contribute to the vicious cycle as they become adults. Georgia ranks among the top tier of states where domestic and family violence is most likely to occur. That abuse takes many forms: emotional, psychological, physical, sexual and financial. Such violence affects all family members — not just spouses or partners. It affects neighborhoods, our schools — our entire community.

When a few, or even just one suffer, we all feel the impact.

Saturday’s local event is a way to honor the memories of the victims, those we know and those who suffer silently right here among us. It is also a means to offer support and should serve to raise awareness to the issue in an effort to spur conversation on how to find solutions to the root causes right here at home.

There is another way.

We must remain vigilant as a community to overcome these acts of violence that perpetrate the community.

Too many lives, too often young lives filled with potential, are being been lost.