Gordon Clay here. I wanted to talk about the recent Tea Party held at the Best Western last Saturday, but the following came across my desk today and it seems more timely. It's about Senate Resolution 373 agreed to January 25, 2010 designating the month of February as "National Teen Dating Violence Awareness and Prevention Month."

It starts "Whereas dating, domestic and sexual violence, affect women regardless of their age, and teens and young women are especially vulnerable." The second states" Whereas, approximately 1 in 3 adolescent girls in the United States is a victim of physical, emotional or verbal abuse from a dating partner..."

And there are 18 more Whereases, not a single whereas about male victimization or female offending. And the media follow the pide piper over the cliff.

Apparently no one at the Department of Justice is aware that the 2007 CDC Morbidity and Mortality Weekly reports that while the percentage of victimization remains the same for girls at 8.8%, the victimization for boys increased from 8.9% to 11.0%. A stroll through BHHS halls on a break would confirm this.

When our sons are mentioned in programs and interventions it is almost always as offenders not victims.

More boys and men may become engaged in prevention efforts if the dating and domestic violence/abuse organizations cease dismissing female initiation as insignificant and claiming that male victimization is so rare that it is inconsequential.

To free our daughters from the past is a righteous and just cause. However, this need not be done at the expense of our sons.