Men’s Violence

Eugene Weekly’s Feb. 6 article “A Wait Too Long” illuminates women’s and children’s long wait for hospital care after a man attacks and rapes them, but still in the shadows is men’s violence.

Men perpetuate hate crimes against women every day here in Lane County. If it were any other group being attacked, racial or religious, we would declare a state of emergency with such a high level of violence. But we don’t have to live/survive like this.

The Rojava revolution in Syria outlawed child brides and domestic violence. It created a Women’s Army and made both women’s and men’s positions for all governing bodies. Councils must consist of at least half women and there are also women’s councils.

They did this in a region where the culture was oppressive for women. But people were willing to change because it worked!

A society where half the people are violent against the other half is weak. We don’t have to accept that women’s and children’s lives will always be compromised and controlled by men using weaponized sex — what the U.N. has called a crime of war.

We can do more than help the wounded — we can stop the war.

Kari Johnson

Eugene