Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, October 26, 1993                   TAG: 9310260012
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: Kathy Loan
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

FALL FOLIAGE AND VIOLENCE CONNECTED?

Huh?

That was our reaction in the newsroom, too, when we received a flier from some state agency suggesting coverage of domestic violence issues.

Somehow, their lead - the attempt to get our attention - was wrong. It was a non sequitur. The changing colors of the leaves is a beautiful thing. Domestic violence isn't.

But I can see the problem the writer had. How to get our attention when so many other things are competing for news space?

October is also Sexual Assault Awareness Month and Crime Prevention Month.

Hmm . . . that all fits nicely into the beats I cover: police and courts and social services.

So off I went to talk to a staff member at the Women's Resource Center of the New River Valley, armed with my preconceived ideas about domestic violence.

I opened the interview by giving a half-fictional example of an abused woman whose husband, in my eyes, has done her every kind of wrong. Physical, emotional and verbal abuse.

Why do women stay in those situations, I asked, incredulous that anyone would endure such assaults on their persons and their self-esteem.

Mary Beth Pulsifer set me straight.

"Women genuinely do love their partners," she told me. And probably, the husband isn't abusive all the time.

But when it gets to be too much to handle - however much the frequency - the Women's Resource Center is there to help:

With counseling;

With referrals to supporting agencies that can help them get on their feet when they leave the home;

And with a shelter for them and their children if they have no where else to go.

This evening, the "Take Back the Night" march and rally will be held on the Radford University campus.

Slated for 6-8 p.m. at Heth Plaza, the event honors Sexual Assault Awareness Month and is sponsored by the campus organization RU SAAFE, Radford University Sexual Assault Advocates, Friends and Educators.

Participants are asked to wear a purple ribbon tied with a knot for every friend or family member who has been sexually assaulted. The ribbon and the march will show support for victims and will be a quiet protest of sexual violence against women and all people.

This march and the purple ribbons sure seem more of an appropriate image than the fall foliage when thinking of sexual assault and domestic violence.

Kathy Loan is the New River Valley bureau's law-enforcement reporter.