Elise Patkotak: Domestic violence ad wasn't political

Opinion

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

"As someone who has worked for more than 30 years in the field of domestic violence, sexual assault and child abuse, I cannot express how thrilled I was when Gov. Sean Parnell put his money where his mouth is and launched an offensive against these heinous actions.

What you need to understand is that in this field of work, we are used to getting a lot of blathering and bleating from politicians but little in the way of real commitment. When the camera lights and microphones go away, so does the interest of most elected officials as they turn their minds to the more "important" topics that bring better press -- topics like ACES and gas pipelines and revenue streams. I'm not saying those aren't important topics. I'm just saying so is the horror of family life in way too many Alaska homes.

So here we were with a governor who actually believed that this was a topic worthy of his personal attention. In fact, here was a governor who actually faced a camera and spoke about a subject that is the unspoken secret of way too many families -- drunken abuse and violence perpetrated by a family member who should be ensuring the family's safety.

I don't know how many of you caught Gov. Parnell's ad before it was yanked but I found it fairly powerful. His message is one that needs to be heard. And it needs to be heard coming from one of the most powerful people in our state because that too is part of the message. That tells people suffering in homes full of violence that things can change, things can get better and -- probably most importantly - you don't have to follow in the violent footsteps of your history. Because your father hit or your uncle abused or your mother was too drunk to ever protect you, you don't have to re-create that history in your own family."

Get the Story:
Elise Patkotak: Domestic violence shouldn't be political (The Anchorage Daily News 2/17)