Tuesday afternoon, U.S. Representative Rosa DeLauro and Democratic candidate for CT Attorney General spoke to students at Southern Connecticut State University about the issue of domestic violence. Surrounding the podium where small red flags, part of the Red Flag Campaign designed to educate friends and peers about “red flags” or warning indicators of dating violence, and encourage them to intervene in the situation by saying something.

Domestic violence is a big problem, especially for college age women. Rep. DeLauro noted that two million women are injured each year because of domestic violence, and three women die each day because of it. A starting point is to make people more aware of the problem and of resources available to address the problem.

Yet in many ways, domestic violence is really but one form of a larger problem. That problem is people being uninformed and apathetic. Even worse are those that are not apathetic, but actually argue against society trying to step in and protect the abused. They misuse fancy legal ideas like “nullification”, arguing that we should nullify those parts of our national social contract that are inconvenient to their profit motives.

Students across the country may be unaware of classmates that are suffering from or perpetuating sexual violence. Even if they know about what is going on, they too often don’t want to get involved or don’t know what to do. The Red Flag Campaign is an important resource for them.

The same thing is happening in politics where some are suggesting nullification, reduced regulation, and other ideas to make it easier for large corporations to screw individuals. But there is something that can be done. Students and others who are not yet politically involved need to register to vote. They need to become more informed. They need to look closely and who will stand up for people getting screwed by corporations.

During his time as a legislator, George Jepsen co-authored the state’s first comprehensive plan to prevent violence against women. He has fought hard to make sure that we have a government of, by and for all the people, and not just the large corporations which the Supreme Court now calls people, and those who would enable these large corporations to screw the rest of us.

So, today, people gathered to raise awareness of domestic violence. Look for red flags that indicate your friends might be having difficulties and do something. Awareness was also raised about why we need people like George Jepsen and Rosa DeLauro fighting for us in Hartford and Washington. Look for the red flags that indicate that our democracy might be having difficulties and do something about that as well.