Editor’s note: The following is an excerpt from Sen. Mana Silva Taijeron’s keynote address at yesterday’s Crime Victims' Rights Ceremony.

CRIME Victims’ Rights Week is a time for us to reflect on victims in our community. More importantly, it is a time for all of us to not only sympathize with victims, but to also take a hard look at how we help victims cope, and what services we provide to allow victims to return to a more normal life.

Today, we stand more prepared than ever to help victims of crime. Just last year, Guam’s Family Justice Center was opened as a one-stop location for victims to obtain services to escape abuse. The Family Justice Center works with a cohort of governmental and nongovernmental agencies to provide coordinated services to victims of family violence.

I have also taken it upon myself to urge the governor of Guam to empanel the Criminal Injuries Compensation Commission, so that victims may finally receive their due compensation for having suffered as a result of a crime. The commission has not been able to meet because of a lack of appointees, and therefore funds are not being dispersed. I ask the governor to please make this a priority.

Unfortunately, crime and its victims do not disappear simply because we don’t talk about it. Instead, our silence increases the frequency of crime in our community, and further alienates residents who have fallen victim to crime. Apathy towards crime and crime victims must stop.

Today, we honor victims of all crime. You are not alone. We do not honor you with ceremonies or proclamations, but by speaking out against crime. We honor you by working day in and day out to provide shelter, counseling and legal information. We honor you by staying committed to improving victims' rights, and by ensuring that those who would violate those rights are punished according to the law. Most of all, we honor you by not being silent on this important issue.

Years ago, I stood before a crowd much like this one and spoke about how crime had affected my life. I spoke for the first time about being a victim of domestic violence. My story was about how, as a young adult, I had been beaten and tormented by someone who supposedly loved me. I was one of the lucky ones, and today, I am not a victim. I am a survivor! I have since vowed never to keep silent – in hopes that I may save the life of someone else who is being abused. I walked the streets with Auntie Pat Quinata, whose daughter was killed as a result of domestic violence. You’ve heard her story – her young daughter brutally killed by her husband. That mother is not keeping silent and the children left behind are not keeping silent.

When I received the invitation for today’s ceremony, it said in big letters the following phrase: “Extending the Vision, Reaching Every Victim.” If there is one thing that you take from today’s ceremony, it is that if we do not keep this issue alive, it will die. No substantial change in victims' rights and services will happen without our commitment to “extend the vision” and awareness we share beyond these walls.

It is my sincerest hope that all of us here today continue to reach out to victims of crime, and that we never let what is easy dissuade us from doing what is right.