On Thursday, Jan. 28, about 425 students gathered to support an amazing cause, the One Love Foundation. I was one of the 425 who had the opportunity to attend the Escalation seminar sponsored by the One Love Foundation. The One Love Foundation is dedicated to Yeardley Love, who was beaten to death by her ex-boyfriend, only three weeks shy of her graduation from the University of Virginia.
“Founded in 2010, One Love works with young people across the country to raise awareness about the warning signs of abuse and activate communities to work to change the statistics around relationship violence,” according to the organization's website.
Most people do not know that one in three women will experience relationship violence in their lifetime, and one in four men will experience relationship violence in their lifetime. Think about that. I am looking around my apartment right now, and there are four women in the room; that means that one of us could be a statistic. That is an absolutely horrifying fact and reality.
One Love is currently raising awareness by starting the #thatsnotlove campaign with a chain of videos. Each one describes how one of the warning signs of relationship abuse -- when someone in the relationship is using, "I love you," as a reasoning, a justification, or defense of their poor actions. That is not real love, and it is about time that we realize and stand up for ourselves. Everyone deserves true love.
This article is not only going to hopefully raise some awareness about this cause, but is also a cry for advocacy. Everyone has a voice for a reason. The only person you are hurting by not speaking up is yourself. I mean speaking up for yourself against those who judge you, but also standing up for what you believe in. There are so many ways to do that now. You can use social media to spark a movement faster than people ever could before. I am not saying that everyone needs to start a movement; all I am saying is that now more than ever we all have the chance to be the change that we want to see in the world.
It is so easy to join One Love. All you have to do is click on this link, and sign up. The message that I heard the other night was eye-opening. It made me realize that I might be seeing warning signs of relationship abuse or violence and do not even be aware of it. At the end of the video shown during the seminar, the detective investigating the murder that resulted from relationship abuse and violence says, “They all saw something; they just did not know what they were seeing.” He is referring to the friends of the victim and the accused. Each one them noticed that something was wrong or noticed warning signs of relationship violence, but they had no idea that was what they were seeing.
Sometimes movies find a way of saying what we are thinking and what we all need to hear. In this case, I am talking about "The Princess Diaries." At the end of the movie, Mia is giving a speech accepting her place as the princess of Genovia. Her reasoning boils down to the following: "If I were Princess of Genovia, then my thoughts and the thoughts of people smarter than me would be much better heard, and just maybe those thoughts could be turned into actions." You do not have to be the princess of Genovia to make your voice heard. We all deserve a chance to be heard, but to be heard, first we must speak.
