A year ago some feminists claimed that violence against women increases as much as 40 per cent on Super Bowl Sunday.
Though that claim turned out to be exaggerated, the fact remains that football involves plenty of violence as well as finesse. Likewise, the fact remains that domestic violence is the single greatest cause of serious injury to American women, accounting for more women's injuries than car crashes and muggings combined.So the Family Violence Prevention Fund is not out of line in asking Americans to take time out this coming Super Bowl Sunday to recognize the seriousness of the domestic violence problem and to resolve to help end it.
That means doing more than just realizing that, according to FBI figures, a women is beaten by her husband or boyfriend every 15 seconds. Or that more than one in three Americans have witnessed an incident of domestic violence. Or that such violence fills emergency rooms and morgues, contributes to crime and juvenile delinquency, and destroys families.
More important, it means raising and discussing the problem at team meetings, church functions, book clubs, and other community gath-er-ings.
It means calling the police, not turning up the TV set, when the argument next door escalates into threats and cries.
And it means supporting the professionals who work in this field. That means financial as well as moral support. The need for funds should be clear from the fact that there are three times as many animal shelters in this country as there are shelters for battered women.
There is simply no excuse for domestic violence. We all must send a clear message to our families, friends and neighbors that battering never was acceptable and never will be.