Earlier this autumn, I had the opportunity to join the Weiland family in a walkathon to raise awareness on the issue of domestic abuse. As I wove my way along with so many of her friends and relatives one recurring theme overheard in their conversations was a fervent hope that no one would forget what had happened.
We are exposed to so much violence and trauma in news reports every day. Wars, terrorism, murders, rapes, abuse in more manifestations than we can ever fully comprehend. Unfortunately, the effect of our repeated exposure to horrific news all too often is a numbing. Painful stories are presented too quickly and too often for us to fully process, assuming that we even want to do so. Couple that with the fact that our lives get busier every year and it only gets more difficult for us to pause and absorb the meaning in the loss of a life cut short by events which we feel powerless to influence and control. We have our work demands, kids to get to basketball practice, holiday turkeys to buy, phone calls to return, home repairs to tend to, an endless stream responsibilities to attend to just to get through each day. It is truly difficult for those not directly impacted by traumatic loss to remain mindful of the raw pain endured daily by those who have had untimely and devastating losses visited upon them.
One thing that has impressed me in the Weiland family from the start is their passionate desire that Sue's murder not be hidden and that every effort be made to use her sadly "textbook" case to educate and raise our awareness of the very real and pervasive threat of domestic abuse. This family, despite tremendous pain, shared more of the story leading to Sue's murder in a segment aired last night on Fox News 9.
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