Techrights
Good Journalism Saves Lives
Posted by Roy Schestowitz on Jul 16, 2025
When I was a kid Kenneth Edmonds (aka "Babyface") was occasionally played at my home. This was the era of tuner, CDs, and "albums", sometimes "singles". No Internet in homes yet.
In 1996, together with Stevie Wonder (who played across the road from us last week; I wanted to go watch that with my sister), he released "How Come, How Long". It was about domestic violence. It spoke of a woman who was killed by her husband - a death that could be prevented had more people cared and did something.
The song was inspired by the Nicole Brown Simpson murder.
Here are the lyrics of the song:
>
There was a girl I used to know
She was oh so beautiful
But she's not here anymore
She had a college degree
Smart as anyone could be
Had so much to live for
But she fell in love
With the wrong kinda man
He abused her love and treated her so bad
There was not enough education in her world
That could save the life of this little girl
How come, how long
It's not right, it's so wrong
Do we let it just go on
Turn our backs and carry on
Wake up, for it's too late
Right now, we can't wait
She won't have a second try
Open up your hearts
As well as your eyes
She tried to give a cry for help
She even blamed things on herself
But no one came to her aid
Nothing was wrong as far as we could tell
That's what we'd like to tell ourselves
But no, it wasn't that way
So she fell in love
With the wrong kinda man
And she paid with her life
For loving that man
So we cannot ignore
We must look for the signs
And maybe next time
We might save somebody's life
How come, how long
It's not right, it's so wrong
Do we let it just go on
Turn our backs and carry on
Wake up, for it's too late
Right now, we can't wait
She won't have a second try
Open up your hearts
As well as your eyes
I on occasion met that guy
It's been a feeling deep inside
Something about him wasn't right
The way he proves himself a man
By beatin' his woman with his hands
Oh I wish she'd seen the light
(Hey) How can someone like that
Call himself a man (He's not a man)
Coz In reality he's far more less than that
And we cannot ignore
Whenever we see the signs
'cause any kinda of abuse
God knows it's a crime
How come (how come...), how long (how long...)
It's not right (it's not right...), it's so wrong (so wrong...)
Do we let it just go on (just go...)
Turn our backs and carry on
Wake up (wake up...), for it's too late (too late...)
Right now (now...), we can't wait (we can't wait...)
She won't have a second try
Open up your hearts
As well as your eyes...
In the United States alone, a shocking number of women die or get seriously hurt every day due to violence from a partner (1,300 deaths and 2 million injuries per year). "Less than 40% of women actively seek help in domestic violence situations," say statistics. Fear contributes to this. What sometimes happens is, once they make a complaint they get killed, because of the complaint.
This is where journalism can help. █