World News Korner

Alaska's not so secret shame, and how it is happening at an alarming rate right in Sarah Palin's backyard.

Sarah Palin, helping to destroy women's progress in this country with every appearance.

Courtesy of Alaska Dispatch:

An ongoing study by the University of Alaska Justice Center has once again shown us what for years no one wanted to talk about openly: that violence visited upon women in Alaska far more often than we may realize or want to accept.

The latest results from the Alaska Victimization Survey show that one in two women living in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough have experienced intimate partner violence, sexual violence, or both. In the last year alone, 2,687 women in this populous region north of Anchorage experienced it. Of the some 30,000 women that live there, 16,033 have been subjected to it in their lifetime. The numbers show that more than six women per day in the Mat-Su experience intimate partner violence, while more than two per day experience sexual violence, according to the survey.

“Just one victim is one too many. As a community we are concerned,” Mat-Su Borough Manager John Moosey said. “We want a liveable, safe community, especially for women.”

The statistics, released Tuesday by the Justice Center, are an interesting contrast to a different study measuring people's perception about the Mat-Su. Each year, the Justice Center and the Mat-Su Borough conduct a community survey, and awareness about sexual assaults and rape is one of the questions. For 2011, of the 1,159 people that participated in the survey, less than two percent replied that a rape or sexual assault had taken place in their neighborhood in the last six months.

But this difficult task – reconciling perceptions with personal experiences – may cause Alaskans to confront an uncomfortable reality. For the 1,159 people in the Mat-Su who were generally unaware of sexual violence in their neighborhood, another 1,190 – the number polled for the victimization survey – revealed a different story.

“There is a tremendous amount of stigma associated with disclosing domestic and sexual violence. As a result, few people disclose, even to their closest friends and family members. As a result, few people are aware of how common these forms of violence are,” explained Dr. Andre Rosay, Director of the Justice Center at the University of Alaska-Anchorage, the group that conducted the survey. “While people don't perceive that domestic and sexual violence are severe problems in our communities, our survey results show that many women have experienced these forms of violence and many are suffering in silence.”

You know every once in awhile I get into pensive mood and I take a moment to reflect on the the Governor Sarah Palin who could have been.

As the very first female Governor in the state's history she could have been an incredibly powerful and inspiring voice against sexual and physical assault. She could have brought women together from all over the state, and they would finally have felt they had a powerful champion to stand up for them and a person who they could trust to understand their pain and shame.

Instead they got a self serving, overly ambitious social climber who could no more relate to the suffering of other women in her state, than she could to the suffering of any other group who she felt could not help her career.

There was an amazing opportunity for a real female leader in Alaska. An opportunity and a challenge that still remains to this day.

But until we find somebody willing to tackle this incredibly tough issue in an honest and aggressive manner, I fear the number of women hiding black eyes behind their sunglasses or bruises under their clothing will remain unchanged.

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