The CMAV Mission Statement

At Columbia Men Against Violence we explore the diversity of masculinities at Columbia University and work to educate ourselves and others towards the goal of eliminating violence in our lives.

The CMAV Vision Statement

We live in a society saturated with violence.

It is in our community, in our television, in the suite next door. It is in our faces, in our minds, and in ourselves.

As men, we are constantly told that violence is our answer to everything. Violence should be used to secure cooperation, to solve disagreements, to get our way, to be superior -- to control.

Tonight we come together as men -- as people -- because the violence stops here -- with us and within us.

We come together because men still are the primary perpetrators of sexual assault and relationship violence. Most of us have not ourselves been violent, but some men's crimes are every man's responsibility. Some men have raped and battered -- those who have must acknowledge it and change. Even the most innocent, those who have never forced nor hit, may have abused their loved ones emotionally or verbally. These, too, are violent acts. As men we pledge not to commit these acts of violence.

We come together on behalf of our fellow men who are themselves survivors of sexual assault and of intimate abuse. They carry a double burden, even more unable to tell their stories, while living with the message that their feelings don't matter -- no feelings do -- and that they should "be men" and "just get over it." We are here for our fellow men who are survivors: that pain is real. You have a right to be heard. We will not remain silent in the face of all the forces wanting to silence you. We pledge not to be complicit in condoning these acts of violence.

We come together because of the thousand ways we are privileged every day, whether in the right to speak first or decide when a conversation ends, to go wherever we wish and fit in wherever we go, to wear what we want without being blamed or branded. We are privileged not to fear a 3-am walk down Broadway. But above all, we are privileged in that we may deny the problem even exists, to silence others before they have even begun to speak, and to silence each other with complicity. But we are here because this must not continue. If we do not speak out, then the only voices left speaking are the rapist and the batterer. We refuse to let them speak on behalf of all men everywhere. Instead we pledge not to be silent about these acts of violence.

We come together because we support all survivors -- in defiance of sexism, racism, classism, orientationism -- in support of identity, personhood, humanity. We are united against the silence that presses on us all.

Until violence is no longer unremarkable, we cannot let it pass by unremarked. We will move our voices.