Rallies will oppose violence | Maui News

WAILUKU — Continuing incidents of domestic violence occurring around Hawaii will have women and men rallying this week on Maui in a renewed campaign to raise awareness of the tragedy of family violence.

“For decades, women have been standing up and saying enough is enough, and finally the courts are listening and police are listening. But we still have a huge family violence problem,” said Bill Staton, a counselor and mediator who formerly headed the state Office of Veterans Services on Maui.

The staff at the Women Helping Women domestic violence assistance group on Maui is confronting the issue again in response to a murder-suicide on Oahu in which a 38-year-old mother of four children was killed by her husband.

Doreen Singson with Women Helping Women said the Maui
group will hold a sign-waving rally today in coordination with a similar
demonstration planned on Oahu over the death of Della Dikito, who was shot repeatedly in an incident Friday at her Ewa Beach home before her husband shot himself in the head.

The Maui rally will be held starting at 4 p.m. along Kaahumanu Avenue fronting Maui Community College.

A second rally will be held Friday beginning at 4:15 p.m. on Kaahumanu Avenue fronting Central Pacific Bank at the Kahului Shopping Center, sponsored by Maui Men Against Family Violence.

“We need more men getting involved . . . to stand up and say this isn’t good, this isn’t right,” Staton said.

The rally was planned to precede the Mother’s Day weekend as a way to have men “stop and look and see that maybe it isn’t OK, what I see in movies, what we hear in songs,” he said.

“We’re really hoping for a good number of men this time. We’re taking a stand because we want people to see this is a beginning for something to change. We are taking a stand. It starts here for all of us to be making our families stronger, to make the families on Maui healthier.” ...Rallies will oppose violence Maui News