"Let’s talk about violence" - Latest column by Darcy Mellsop

Let’s talk about violence.

I wonder if we talk enough about violence. I wonder why it isn’t main-stream conversation. We talk about other things prevalent in our society which affect us. We talk about sport, sex, politics, travel, our work, but not violence anywhere to the same degree.

When we do talk about violence, it’s usually to cover 3 things: justice (because we’ve read about something horrible that’s recently happened), what that person should have done to stop it from happening to them and what we might have done.

Is this enough to provide us valuable insight? Or are we simply picking over the bones of something that doesn’t offer us much value – talking about stuff that’s happened is reactive, we are really focusing on aftermath and also, it’s depressing stuff.

I think that we don’t have enough conversations that lead to us educating each other. Ok, so what’s the plan? Let’s share information. When we are talking about violence, talk about what we know. Talk about the things that some guy did that made us feel uncomfortable during the date and why we are not going to go out with him again. Or the time that our ego got in control of us and started to escalate a road rage incident. Challenge and discuss what you and others understand about keeping ourselves safe. Challenge, think and discuss lots. Simple. Because knowing violence, and knowing the early signs of violence, is extremely effective in reducing the balance of probability of being involved in violence.