Politics & Power Quote by Lucille Roybal-Allard

October functions here as both calendar and cudgel: a sanctioned moment to take a problem that usually lives behind closed doors and drag it into the public square. Roybal-Allard, speaking as a legislator, leans on the ritual language of awareness months ("renew the fight") because it does political work. It turns domestic violence from an individual tragedy into a recurring civic agenda item, something government can be expected to address rather than merely mourn.

The phrase "together, we can" is classic coalition rhetoric, but its subtext is sharper: responsibility is distributed across institutions that often pass the buck. Police, courts, schools, health systems, employers, faith communities, neighbors - all are implicated without being named. That vagueness is strategic. It invites buy-in from constituencies that might disagree on causes or solutions while still committing them to the moral baseline: abuse is unacceptable.

"Eliminate domestic violence" is aspirational to the point of audacity, and that too is the point. In a policy landscape where reforms can get trapped in incrementalism, the totalizing goal creates permission to push for stronger funding for shelters, enforcement of protective orders, prevention education, and survivor services. It frames partial measures as steps toward an endpoint, not as a tolerable equilibrium.

The closing focus on children is not incidental. It reframes domestic violence as a community-level public health and development crisis, not just adult conflict. In doing so, it mobilizes the broadest political sympathy while quietly challenging the cultural reflex to treat the home as private territory beyond intervention.