Have you stood in line at a grocery store lately and noticed the covers of all the gossip magazines? Brad, Angelina and Jennifer Aniston have finally been bumped by the tragic Riyanna fiasco. It was bad enough that she was beaten and strangled to the point of nearly losing consciousness. What's worse are all the cozy pictures and headlines about the couple getting back together. I'm not even going to mention the name of the man who attacked her. This has been a publicity boondoggle for him.
What bothers me is how much attention is being paid to the sad and sordid details of this pathetic celebrity drama and too little seizing of this "teachable moment" to help other women and teenage girls who are in danger. The statistics are sad and not getting any better. And teenage girls are equally at risk, with 1 in 4 (the same as for adult women) experiencing physical abuse from their boyfriends. Here is the national domestic abuse hotline that will connect you or someone you care about to local help. Our attention is fickle. Soon, we'll move on to some other juicy celebrity story and will have forgotten this -- until Riyanna is injured again, of course.
Please use your voice to speak up during this brief moment of national attention on a tragedy that plays out every minute against women and girls all over the world. And support anyone you know who is in danger to get help.
Leave it to Oprah to speak out and tell it like it is. "Love doesn't hurt, she told her national audience last Friday. If a man hits you once, he'll hit you again." Here's the link.
