Yesterday a snowstorm postponed the Saratoga’s National  Dance Museum’s One Billion Rising event… but nothing can stop the movement to end global  violence against women.Sometimes it seems like we aren’t making progress, but in fact in just 30 years we’ve come from a place where in the US domestic violence was seen as just a lover’s spat to a community that recognizes this as a crime an invests in prevention activities so our children and grandchildren may never know what it’s like to live in fear at home. 

When Esta Soler lobbied for legislation to end domestic violence, one politician called it the “Take the Fun out of Marriage Act”… really. Listening to Esta decribe our progress in the last 30 years, brings hope that while we’ve still got so much more work to do, we’re on the right path. Her words are inspirational! A few flakes in the Northeast may have interrupted our opportunity to join one billion people rising worldwide to dance and shake up our world to create and end to violence against women, but listening to Esta Soler helped me to connect with the progress we’ve made and believe that by working together we’re on the path to ending relationship and sexual abuse.

Together we will succeed.