City officials, historians and other people interested were among the 25 in attendance at the 7 p.m. meeting. They discussed several topics, including a possible video production, a christening date activity and ideas on how to attract people to historic sites in Lincoln.

After viewing a video from Looking for Lincoln in Decatur, the group discussed at great length creating a video focusing expressly on Abraham Lincoln history in Logan County. They would like to use the video both to draw tourists and to educate visitors once they've come. The group also considered using the video for fund-raising purposes, selling it in highly trafficked places where historic memorabilia is sold, such as at New Salem. Heads nodded as many ideas for the video were put on the floor in the excitement.

Those present continued to brainstorm on ways to bring people into the downtown area. Many of the ideas will be pursued at later dates. The group plans to meet in the future on the last Wednesday of every month at 7 p.m.

For more information on this project, contact Main Street Lincoln at 732-2929.

[Trisha Youngquist]

[Members of a panel on domestic violence who spoke at a seminar Thursday evening are, left to right:
Paramedic John Short, Rev. Glenn Shelton of Second Baptist church, Police Officer Diana Short, Mental Health Specialist Alisin Gosda, domestic abuse survivor Tina Merchant, Sergeant Thomas Rowland, Dayle Eldridge of Health Communities Partnership, and Marcia Stall of Logan Mason Mental Health.]

Tina Merchant, domestic violence survivor and a member of the Domestic Abuse and Violence Task Force of the Healthy Communities Partnership (HCP), explained the process of becoming an abuse victim.

"It starts with verbal abuse, name calling, erosion of your self-confidence. You are told you have to quit work. You are isolated from your family and friends. For me the physical abuse started with pushing, then dragging me by the hair, then punching me. He shaved my head and pushed it in the toilet. He choked me until I was unconscious. He beat me when I was pregnant and when I was holding the children.

"I was a strong person, but he broke me down, little by little. He took away my job, my family, my friends."

Merchant left her abuser and came to Lincoln, but a year and a half later he followed her. She sent him away, but on Valentine’s Day he came back, kicked in the locked door, followed her outside and punched and kicked her unconscious. "If it hadn’t been for my neighbor, he would have killed me," she reported.

Her abuser is now serving 11 years in prison.

Tim Butterfield, one of the Lincoln police officers who was called to the scene, described Merchant as "one of the worst cases I’ve ever seen. We do have a domestic violence problem in Lincoln that we have to do something about," he added. "A lot of these crimes don’t get reported because the abused woman feels it her fault. She’s been broken down so much."

"For years and years there were no laws that covered domestic battery," explained Police Sergeant Thomas Rowland. "The only thing an abuser could be charged with was battery. And it didn’t work. We were getting the same calls over and over again."

The attitude of the general public didn’t help, either. It was, "These are family matters and should stay private," Rowland said. "Once new laws came into effect, things started to change."

Since the passage of the Domestic Violence Act in July of 1990, police not only can but must take action, he said. They can make an arrest, regardless of the wishes of the victim. Previously, victims had to state that they wanted their abusing husband or boyfriend arrested, and many were too frightened or embarrassed to do that.

Also, police must offer the victim information on what her options are, offer to find her a safe place to stay, and offer to transport her for medical treatment. They must also make written reports of all incidents.

"I’d like to have seen this occur long before," Rowland said.

"We try to keep victims from having to testify," she said. "It’s her fault he goes to jail and gets his name in the paper. When he’s out, he’s going to go looking for her and she knows it." She said 90 percent of victims who start to prosecute change their minds within the first 48 hours.

McPheron has worked in Lincoln since August of 1999. "Forty percent of the cases that crossed my desk were domestic violence, and only one out of 10 such cases is reported," she said. "This crime crosses all barriers – cultural, social, financial. And a batterer doesn’t look like a bad guy. He looks like Joe Ordinary."

McPheron said Logan County needs domestic violence shelters. "Where do these victims go in the dead of the night when the blood is fresh and the tears are stinging, with three small children in pajamas? They have no money and no place to live. They are afraid they can’t survive on their own, and they try to convince themselves the abuser will change.

"Abusers never change unless they are forced to change. Abusers convince females that it’s all their fault."

John Short of the Logan County Paramedic Association explained that paramedics must try to convince victims to leave the scene of the violence and get medical treatment, and they must try to determine if the injuries the victim has sustained correlate with the story the abuser tells.

Alison Gosda and Marcia Stoll of Logan-Mason Mental Health discussed the myths about domestic violence and the multiple needs of domestic violence victims. "It takes a community to help in this situation," Stoll said. "The inability to find emotional and financial support is the main reason domestic violence victims return to their abusers.

"They are embarrassed and ashamed, and they think other marriages are the same way. They are also afraid DCFS or some other agency will take their children away from them."

Stoll also pointed to the need for a shelter. "If I could call a police officer and say, ‘Can you take this woman and keep her safe?’ the rest would be history."

Merchant summed up the attitude that abuse victims, and the community, must take to begin solving the problem of domestic violence.

"It’s OK that I was abused," she said, "but it’s not OK to accept it."

[Joan Crabb]