Challenge: Think Differently When You See A Purple CarDecor Girl

You may either love or hate purple cars, they’re certainly eye catching. Increased interest in supercars and exotics has paved the way for people to get very creative when it comes to car color. However, this is not a new thing. Purple cars, though rare, are not unusual. We are posting purple cars all month on Instagram, new and old, because I want to challenge you to think differently when you see a purple car.

Today I’m going to veer slightly off topic when it comes to cars, because October is a very significant month for me. October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, being this is my mom’s birth month and she was murdered in a domestic violence incident, making people aware of the prevalence of domestic violence is my duty.

When you see a purple car consider this:

Domestic Violence is real, it is going on around you. Someone you know, your mother, sister, friend, cousin, grandmother or daughter has been, is or will be a victim of domestic violence.

It begins small, it could be a slightly disparaging comment about how a person looks or thinks, or an insistence of knowing every place she is going in a day, or statements declaring how he is the only one who loves or understands her. On the surface none of this sounds horrific, but this is just the beginning of the game of power and control. It may take months. It may take years before it escalates.

Domestic Violence is not just physical. It isn’t just cuts, bruises or broken bones. Domestic Violence is a mental game, it is emotional abuse, financial abuse, anything one can use to attempt to control another. Non-physical abuse leaves lasting scars women and children of domestic violence victims carry throughout their life, long after, if they’re lucky, the abuser is gone.

I’ve spoken with many family members, like myself, who witness the abuse going on in a friend or family member. What can they do, how can they help? The toughest thing to understand is YOU can’t fix it, change it or stop it. What you can do is learn about Domestic Violence, learn about where someone can go for help. Only when you understand the true monster of how abuse gets inside one’s head will you have the answer to the underlying question why doesn’t she just leave?

My mom’s last phone call was to her local Domestic Violence organization, she was trying to leave, but her husband stopped her brutally ripping her away from the phone and then murdering her.

When you look at the numbers around the globe, Domestic Violence is occurring on a daily basis at epidemic proportions. How do we stop this from happening? You may have heard the saying, stop the silence, this is what people are talking about.

Don’t sit on the sidelines
Teach your children well
Learn and model good behaviors
Guys if you see or witness another guy, one of your buddies, acting or speaking in an abusive manner, speak up! Do not coddle or protect the abuser with silence.

Silence kills, I wish I would have spoken up.