September 11, 2004 will mark the third anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks, a date that forever changed the landscape surrounding terrorism and the violence associated with it. The 9/11 attacks were not against American ships in foreign ports, or her embassies in foreign lands. Nor were these attacks against others she knows such as the Philippines, Spain, or Iraq. These were attacks on America's homeland – domestic violence.
They were perpetuated by abusers who blamed the victim, America, for the abuse. The domestic violence not only had an immediate impact, it influenced our spending, social/political contacts, and to an extent, isolated America from some of her traditional sources of support and help abroad. According to a March 29, 2004 article in the NY Times, the Pentagon released parts of an unclassified document suggesting that the United States is “woefully ill-prepared to detect and respond to a bioterrorist assault”.
All of this has caused America and her citizens to experience a new kind of anxiety; a vulnerability and reality that the oceans no longer protect her from terrorists. America cannot relocate. She cannot hide. She cannot escape to a safer place. The terrorists reside in the same homeland as the victims creating a constant sense of anxiety, fear and potential danger. In some instances such as the Democratic and the Republican National Conventions, the heightened threat of terrorism caused some individuals to leave their homes for other locations where they felt the potential risk was less. But most did not leave. Their financial needs or their belief that their risk was a fact of life, or that some form of domestic violence wouldn't happen again led them to stay put. Waiting for something bad to happen, or waiting for it not to happen is a very uncomfortable way to live.
There is another type of domestic violence more commonly associated with the term. It also goes by the name of spouse abuse or battering. It is equally as insidious and potentially as destructive. As the article in this issue of SRM explains, domestic violence is a pattern of behaviors that include physical and sexual violence, emotional abuse, threats and controlling behavior; behavior that terrorizes nearly 1.5 million women annually in the United States. In the worst cases it ends in deadly violence such as the recently publicized victims Lori Hacking in Salt Lake City, Utah or Laci Peterson in Redwood City, California. No socioeconomic group is safe. And as do terrorists, the abusers who commit domestic violence against an intimate partner often blame the victim for the abuse. And as with terrorism, the domestic violence not only has an immediate impact, it influences the victims spending, social/political contacts, and to an extent, isolates her from some of her traditional sources of support. The abuser often lives in the same home, creating a state of constant anxiety, with the potential victim hoping that violence will not strike again, and never knowing where or when it might. None of us wants to live in terror.
As we approach the third anniversary of 9/11, we should all have heightened vigilance against terrorism. But not only the kind of terrorism that struck America's homeland three years ago. As physicians we should draw the parallel and remember the amplified stress of the other 911 – domestic violence against women and heighten our vigilance to uncover and eradicate it.
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