[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 46 (Friday, April 1, 2011)]
[House]
[Pages H2252-H2255]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
WHITE RIBBON CAMPAIGN
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Pompeo). Under the Speaker's announced
policy of January 5, 2011, the gentlewoman from New York (Ms. Buerkle)
is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
Ms. BUERKLE. Mr. Speaker, today I rise to speak about two of the most
significant issues facing our society today--the twin scourges of
domestic violence and sexual abuse. Our society has a moral obligation
to stand up against those who exploit their power to commit violence
against women, men, and children. I join other Members here today in
taking the opportunity to discuss these issues and participate in the
White Ribbon Campaign.
On Tuesday of this past week, March 22, in Syracuse, New York, the
president of SUNY Upstate Medical University, Dr. David Smith, chaired
a breakfast. It was the kickoff to the White Ribbon Campaign, a
campaign that is to draw attention to and focus on, raise awareness of,
domestic violence and sexual abuse. The White Ribbon Campaign is an
international campaign, participating probably across 55 countries.
Later in the week, on Friday, again Dr. Smith led a group of men in a
march raising awareness for domestic violence. They marched in women's
shoes down the main street in Syracuse, New York. Again, ``walk a mile
in their shoes,'' raising awareness, raising the consciousness of
domestic violence and sexual abuse, these issues that face our society
today. The international campaign has probably 55 countries and
involves a general public education focused on preventing domestic
violence.
Many of my fellow Members this past week have been wearing white
ribbons for our commitment to putting the spotlight on domestic
violence. Wearing the white ribbon speaks to our personal pledge to
never commit, condone, or remain silent about violence against women
and children. The white ribbons were sponsored by Vera House. Vera
House was formed in 1977 in Syracuse, New York, by Sister Mary Vera
because Sister Mary Vera recognized the need for emergency shelters for
women.
{time} 1510
She developed and expanded her services. Now, today, Vera House has
merged with the Rape Crisis Center, and they serve the needs of so many
women, men and children who have been abused. Again, the whole White
Ribbon Campaign is to raise public awareness of domestic violence.
At this time, I yield to the gentlewoman from North Carolina,
Representative Renee Ellmers.
Mrs. ELLMERS. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to thank my colleague and friend from New
York and to point out the fact that, over the years, she has just been
a tireless, dedicated supporter of women's issues, family issues, and
of giving her voluntary support of legal services to facilities that
provide domestic violence havens in New York. She is a strong advocate
for the White Ribbon Campaign, and I am proud to stand with her today
in support of ending violence against women.
We show our support today by wearing these white ribbons that
represent
[[Page H2253]]
a pledge to never commit, condone, or to remain silent about violence
against women and girls. So let's start this discussion by defining the
different forms of violence against women.
Domestic violence occurs when one person in an intimate relationship
uses a pattern of controlling assaultive behavior to abuse, threaten,
harass, and intimidate the other partner. This violence comes in many
forms. In its simplest terms, it is emotional abuse; name-calling;
playing mind games; put-downs; threats--they can be physical or
emotional--intimidation; using looks; smashing things; loud voices or
actions to put you in fear of what might happen; isolation; controlling
where you go, what you do, what you see; driving away friends and
family; and of course sexual abuse and the use of children: making you
feel guilty about the children, using custody or visitation to harass
you.
None of these forms of abuse are acceptable, and part of the White
Ribbon Campaign's objective is to bring these issues to light. The
bottom line here is that there are men in this country who want to
protect the women they love. Through the White Ribbon Campaign, they
are speaking out against these atrocities that take place. They are
educating and calling on their fellow man to stop the violence.
While we are taking a moment today to bring this important issue to
light, I want to take a moment to commend the many facilities in my
congressional district that are helping to provide a safe place for
women but that are also working toward bringing families back together
by working through the violence issues.
S.A.F.E. of Harnett County is a private, nonprofit organization whose
mission is to provide safety and to serve as an advocate for sexual
assault and domestic violence victims, survivors, and their families.
In Chatham County, North Carolina, the Family Violence and Rape
Crisis Services has helped numerous people through effective
programming. One victim said, ``The pieces of the puzzle are coming
together. The Family Violence and Rape Crisis Service has given me the
strength to be who I was supposed to be on my own.''
In Johnston County, Safe Harbor is another private, nonprofit agency
that was created in 1984 with $500 and a donated phone line. This
agency served around 3,000 victims in 2009.
There are numerous other facilities in my congressional district that
are also doing good work toward stemming the tide of domestic violence.
I want to commend them for their hard work and dedication to the
downtrodden.
As I close today, I also want to commend the men who support the
White Ribbon Campaign. I applaud them for rising up and for reaching
out to educate. It takes a strong man to take this kind of action.
Ms. BUERKLE. I thank the gentlewoman from North Carolina for her kind
comments and for putting attention on the Rape Crisis Centers and all
of these centers which have dealt with this, because today, while we
rise and we stand to call and bring to consciousness domestic violence,
this is also a wonderful opportunity to thank the hundreds of thousands
of people who volunteer in these shelters, who work for these agencies,
who provide a safe haven for the women, the men and the children who
are abused--for the victims of domestic violence.
My colleague talked about what these centers do. Vera House, the
agency that I stand today to represent and to talk about, has expanded
their services these days to outreach, advocacy, education, and
children's counseling. Children, as you heard from my colleague, are
often the victims of domestic violence between spouses. They are the
ones who suffer. Vera House offers counseling to these children. Most
importantly, Vera House provides violence education for the
perpetrators. If we are going to change behaviors, we have got to
educate and to retrain the way the perpetrators think.
General Leave
Ms. BUERKLE. Mr. Speaker, at this time, I ask unanimous consent that
all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend
their remarks and to include extraneous material on the subject of
domestic violence and sexual assault.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentlewoman from New York?
There was no objection.
Ms. BUERKLE. Mr. Speaker, for over 14 years, I have worked at Vera
House as a pro bono legal volunteer. The Women's Bar Association in
Syracuse, New York, put together a program where all attorneys, male
and female, go through training to begin to address the needs of the
victims of domestic violence. Through those 14 years, I began to get an
up-close, clear understanding of the issue of domestic violence. The
fact is that domestic violence transcends socioeconomics; it transcends
race. Domestic violence is an issue that everyone faces. It crosses
racial lines; it crosses economic lines; it crosses social lines.
I recall one of my meetings with a woman whose husband was well-known
in the media in our town. You would never suspect. You would never
think that she would be a victim of domestic violence--educated, with
financial means. Yet she was a victim. This is the pervasiveness of
sexual assault and domestic violence.
At this time, I yield to my esteemed colleague, Judge Poe.
Mr. POE of Texas. I thank the gentlelady for yielding time, and I
appreciate the work she has done on this issue and for bringing it to
the House's attention today during this Special Order.
Domestic violence, as you said, affects the entire country--all
races, all economic groups. No one is exempt from this dastardly deed.
It's my honor to serve as chairman of the Victims' Rights Caucus. It's
a bipartisan caucus. Congressman Jim Costa is the co-chair. We hope to
help promote the concept that victims are people, too, that they have
rights, and that the same Constitution that protects defendants
protects the rights of victims as well. I appreciate the gentlelady for
being a member of that caucus.
In my other life, before I came to Congress, I'd spent most of my
time at the courthouse in Houston for 30 years. I was a prosecutor and
a criminal court judge, hearing criminal cases, and I saw a lot of
people come down there. A lot of people were down there because they
had committed crimes against their families. We need to understand that
when you hurt someone in your family, it is not a family problem only--
it is a criminal problem--and society must get to the point where we
believe that it is socially unacceptable to commit crimes in the
family.
Probably the most important person in my life when I was growing up
was my grandmother. She never forgave me for being a Republican; she
always considered herself a Democrat, God bless her. But one thing she
said that was true was that you never hurt somebody you claim you love,
and that's an absolute truth.
{time} 1520
People who claim they love somebody and then physically or
emotionally or verbally abuse them are wrong and should be treated
accordingly and held accountable for that conduct. It is very important
that we recognize that domestic violence is a true issue, and we also
need to understand as a culture and as a community that when a person
is the victim of domestic violence that it's not their fault. They are
the victim.
The offender, in most cases the husband, they are not the victim. The
spouse is the victim, the wife, and defendants and husbands who commit
those crimes can't use excuses and try to portray themselves as the one
being the victim. The offenders should be held accountable, and victims
need to understand society and the law are on their side.
Many victims of spousal abuse and domestic violence, they don't
report it. They don't want the neighbors to know. They don't want the
community to know. They feel like they're beaten down physically and
emotionally, and sometimes they think it is their fault. It's not their
fault. It's always the offender's fault.
And so we as a culture, as a community, in this country, whether
we're from New York or from Texas, we need to let people know that if
they are a victim of crime, if there is a lady that is abused by her
husband, that society comes to her rescue and helps in any way we can
and to make sure we have a safe haven for them to go to if necessary
and that we make sure that it's financed so that the wife does not feel
[[Page H2254]]
like ``I have no place to go because I can't afford anyplace,'' and so
she stays in that abusive relationship, and sometimes it ends in worse
tragedy.
Lastly, I'd like to talk about a very favorite person of mine who
lives not far from here. Yvette Cade is just a regular person who lives
in Maryland, and a few years ago she was trying to separate and divorce
from her husband. A judge refused to grant her a restraining order,
refused to grant a restraining order that she requested to keep her
spouse away from her until all of the divorce had been worked out, and
because the restraining order wasn't extended, her spouse went into a
video store where she was working, carrying a jar of gasoline, and
poured it over Yvette Cade's head and set that woman, that wonderful
lady, on fire.
Now, because of a person in the store who helped put out that fire
that this spouse had committed against Yvette Cade, she survived. And
it's things like that that we as a culture need to hold these culprits
accountable for these crimes against people in their family, and we
need to take wonderful ladies like Yvette Cade and make sure we treat
them with tender care and make sure we have compassion on them to
prevent any further damage to them physically, emotionally, and also
prevent the consequences that other people may choose to commit against
spouses in their own family.
It is important that we continue to preach this word throughout the
country that spousal abuse is something we're going to deal with as a
Nation.
I thank the gentlelady for yielding.
Ms. BUERKLE. I thank my esteemed colleague from Texas for his kind
comments, and I thank all of the gentlemen who have the courage to
stand up and call awareness to the issue of domestic violence, who
stand against the violence against women, men, and children.
Domestic violence is known by many names: domestic abuse, spousal
abuse, family violence, intimate partner violence. It also takes many
forms, from physical violence involving small things such as hitting or
kicking, biting, shoving, or restraining. It can be emotional or it can
be verbal, which manifests in many types of behavior: controlling,
domineering, threatening, or humiliating. And we as a society have an
obligation to raise the awareness of domestic violence so that women
know, just as my esteemed colleague was talking about, it's not their
fault. It is the fault of the perpetrator, whether that perpetrator is
male or female, and that is the person who should be held accountable,
not the victim.
It can also be economic abuse in which the abuser controls the
victim's money, and this abuse we often see with the elderly. Another
issue that we need to raise society's consciousness about, the issues
of elder abuse.
Tragically, domestic violence is not a rare phenomenon, Mr. Speaker.
The Centers for Disease Control estimate that domestic violence is a
public health problem affecting over 32 million Americans, or 10
percent of the population. This is a tragedy of national proportion
that society, again, we must raise up the consciousness of this
horrific issue.
The effects of domestic violence are staggering. Physical abuse can
be bruises, broken bones, head injuries, lacerations, but those are
just the external physical wounds. Internal bleeding, chronic health
conditions such as arthritis, irritable bowl syndrome, ulcers,
migraines, miscarriages can also be linked to physical abuses that
victims sustain.
But there are other effects as well. Many victims experience anxiety,
stress, fear, guilt, depression, guilt that what is happening to them
is their fault. Again, we have to raise the awareness and raise the
consciousness of society that it is the perpetrator's fault, not the
victim's.
Abused victims also frequently manifest a condition we think of
relative to our veterans: posttraumatic stress disorder. Victims with
conditions have flashbacks, nightmares, or exaggerated responses.
The effects of abuse can also be financial. Many victims courageously
leave their abusers but often lack the education, the skills, and the
resources to find gainful employment to care for themselves and any
children they might have.
Mr. Speaker, I can recall sitting with women who are helpless. They
sit across the table from you, and they are helpless because they don't
know what to do. They don't know how to get out of the situation. They
don't understand that there is help and that society is willing to step
up and provide safe haven for them and for their children.
I spoke to a prosecutor who had a program that would go after
deadbeat dads and go after the support so that women would be able to
leave, be safe, and get support in order to support their children. I
think that our society is coming around. We have wonderful
organizations like Vera House, but we in this House must work hard. We
must continue to raise awareness about these issues.
The other societal scourge I referenced in my opening remark is
sexual assault. Sexual assault is, simply put, any unwanted contact of
a sexual nature. It does not matter if the victim is on a date or
drinking when it occurs. It's never okay to force sexual contact on you
against your will.
Again, it's raising the awareness. It's letting society know, the
vulnerable know, that it's not your fault and that you don't have to
withstand these abuses.
Like domestic abuse, sexual assault knows no privileged class immune
to its ravages. Men, women, children, all ages, all races, all
religions, and ethnicities are victims. The effects are often similar
to the victims of domestic abuse, and the effects can be especially
troubling for children and men.
I serve on the Veterans' Affairs Committee, and I am passionate about
veterans' issues. It is a committee that is bipartisan. It's a
committee that works together because we all understand, we all
understand the service and the sacrifice of our men and women in the
military. I am the daughter and sister of veterans and believe that we
owe a debt of gratitude to our men and women in uniform, but part of
that debt extends to making sure that we don't turn a blind eye to
sexual assault of women and men in our armed services.
We have much to do, but I applaud the U.S. Air Force's recognition
that sexual assault against both male and female airmen is a serious
problem that needs a systemic solution. And while the Air Force has
emphasized sexual assault prevention in responses for several years,
they acknowledge that sexual assault is still a problem in the Air
Force, as it is for our military services. In the Air Force's own
words, Sexual assault continues to burden our airmen and degrade our
mission effectiveness. Sexual assault is a crime and there is no place
for this or this behavior in our Air Force. We must demand better of
ourselves and of society.
{time} 1530
Consequently, they contracted with Gallup to conduct an anonymous
poll about sexual assault in the Air Force. The findings were, to put
it mildly, disturbing. The results of the survey in the 12 months prior
were that 2,143 women and 1,355 men reported that they had been
sexually assaulted, with the majority of female victims reporting that
their assailant was a fellow airmen. Even one victim is one too many.
Sadly, it is unrealistic to think that our Armed Forces would be
immune to the kinds of problems endemic in our society. We must engage
as men, women, moms, dads, community leaders, airmen, soldiers,
marines, sailors, and guardsmen; churches, synagogues, mosques, youth
centers, sports teams, schools, colleges. The list goes on. It will
take all aspects of society to change a culture that increasingly
devalues human life.
I believe, Mr. Speaker, that we are created in the image of God and
that for each of us, He has a purpose in our lives. No woman should
ever, ever have to fear for the safety of her unborn child because of
an abusive husband. No child should ever dread going to bed because of
a parent who is molesting her. And no man should be raped because
justice turned a blind eye to prison rape.
I have six children and 11 grandchildren, Mr. Speaker, and as a
parent and a grandparent, I think about the lessons I have tried to
teach to each of them. Some of those lessons were very successful, some
less so, but I taught my kids to help others. Helping others
[[Page H2255]]
includes living up to the pledge I mentioned earlier, that I am making
by wearing that white ribbon: I will not commit, condone, or remain
silent about violence against women, men, or children. And I commend
the other Members of this body for the white ribbons that they
courageously wore to, again, raise the awareness of domestic violence
and sexual assaults.
We have a serious problem in front of us, Mr. Speaker, in every
community in America, but I have hope. America is an amazing country,
and I am so privileged to be an American, to be free. I believe that
the greatness of this country is a reflection of both the greatness of
our founding and the greatness of our people. We are up to and equal to
the task of fighting domestic violence and sexual assault if we put our
American minds and our American spirits to it.
So, today, as I stand before you, Mr. Speaker, again, to call
attention to the scourge of domestic violence and sexual abuse, it's,
at the same time, celebrating the wonderful agencies and shelters and
volunteers and people who have stepped forth who are willing to take
this issue on, who are willing to address it, who are willing to help
the victims of sexual assault and domestic violence. We are blessed by
their service, by their commitment to society, by their appreciation of
the value of human life and their desire to help those who need that
help.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the House for the ability to be able to call
attention to these issues.
At this time, I want to say to Vera House in Syracuse, as well as all
of the shelters and all of the agencies throughout this country, thank
you for your service. Thank you for what you do for the victims of
domestic violence and sexual assaults.
____________________