It shouldn’t be news to you that Ray Rice, NFL pro football player, hit his then fiancé in an elevator. She married Rice a few weeks after the incident occurred and the video surfaced. While the public was outraged, a select group of victims took to Twitter. The hashtag, #WhyIStayed, is in the national spotlight.

Domestic abuse victims shared their heart wrenching stories about why they stayed in relationships despite the physical and verbal abuse they suffered. One woman wrote to The Huffington Post and said she feared it would be worse if she left. When she did leave, her husband shot her and then killed himself. Others spoke of worrying about what would happen to their children. Some women had nowhere else to go.

Do you remember the last time domestic abuse was in the news? When was the last time it received this much attention?

It should not have to take a famous pro-baller hitting his fiancé for domestic violence to receive national attention.

According to domesticviolencestatics.org, every nine seconds, a woman in the U.S.  is assaulted or beaten. By the time you are done reading this article, multiple women have been assaulted.

Domestic violence is a real problem and deserves more attention, just like rape and sexual assault.

It’s time that these very real issues turn from taboo to accepted discussion in our society. How can we, as college students, make this happen? We simply need to speak up and wise up.

Pay attention to the issues our world is facing. Don’t confine yourself to what new series is coming out on Netflix. Learn about the forces shaping society.

Have discussions about what is happening. Like we said in the Our View piece we ran last week, don’t take a back seat in college. Don’t take a back seat in life.

Our generation is a force of nature. We were raised in periods of social change, booming technology, war and terrorism. If we have the knowledge, we have the wherewithal to speak up.

Let’s put the elevator jokes aside. Let’s stop making rash judgments about Rice’s wife. Let’s stop generalizing.

Let’s just stop. Take a pause. Now, let’s have an open and honest talk about domestic violence.

Our hope is that is does not take another celebrity, professional athlete, or public figure hitting their significant other to bring this into the forefront of our minds.