| Too often life and death A list of 36 South Carolina women who died in the past year at the hands of a supposed loved one is a sobering read indeed. With ages ranging from 20 to 74, you cringe at the lost years, the fractured lives, the traumatized children left behind. It's not a great feeling. But it's a great way to kick off National Domestic Violence Awareness Month. It makes you realize what a tragedy is silently unfolding under this society's nose. Far too many innocent women are being abused and killed by husbands and boyfriends. In the SafeHomes of Augusta service area alone - 10 eastern Georgia counties - eight women were murdered in the past year by husbands and boyfriends. If there were a virus killing all these women, there would be a nationwide panic. The Centers for Disease Control would send out teams of scientists to find the cause. American males might be quarantined. This is not to say all men are abusers. Far from it. But all men, and women for that matter, can do something about this scourge. For one thing, they can shake off any notion that domestic violence is a "family" issue that's none of their business. If you witnessed a mugging in an alley, and could do something about it, you would. Why, then, would you not step forward to intervene in a domestic violence situation? Violence is violence; it's not at all mitigated by the fact that the victim and abuser have some sort of relationship. We can also see to it that victims of abuse have refuge before it's too late. It is a scandal, for instance, that Augusta's SafeHomes shelter had to turn away 177 women and children victims of abuse last year. The shelter needs to expand. A new $2.5- to $3-million facility is in the blueprint stage. The Nov. 2 vote on extending the county's 1-cent special purpose local option sales tax includes $1 million for the shelter. Regardless of how that vote goes, much private money will have to be raised at some point. Reading a list of women victims of domestic violence makes you realize just how important this cause is. Too often, it's a matter of life and death.
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