OUR MANIFESTO!

Lights On! is an initiative to humanize the victims of heinous crimes, both in their deaths and in their lives. The narratives put out from the media offer a way of viewing victims that continue to perpetuate the notion of objectification.  Lights On! believes in the importance and the power of media. However, we have learned that people have become too quick to adhere to what the media shows us, too quick to believe that if stories aren’t being told, it is because they’re unimportant. The media provides us entertainment; we are drawn to the lives of the perverse prolific humans that walk this world desperate to find some meaning in their madness—excited at the possibility of figuring out if we can get to the bottom of a horrendous act. We put catchy names on killers, remember the number of victims; instead, Lights On!’s is here to ask that we also remember their names. 
Lights On! works in the area of narrative change. Its goal is not only to pay respect to lives lost and to humanize victims of crimes but also to make a greater impact in how stories of victims are portrayed, including those victims who are still alive. Another aspect of victimization bears its head when the victim starts to look at the media surrounding them. This second wave of victimization is the personal effect that the victim themselves feel when the only story of the trauma is that of judiciary jargon and statistical notions equating them to numbers on a criminal's hit list. This is when narrative ownership becomes critical to putting a face and story to trauma that doesn’t stem from the perpetrator. Lights On! helps to create a space for these stories to be told in a way that is beneficial to victims and survivors of crimes to heal in their own right. 
Lights On! aims to bring justice to those the justice system and the general media equated to numbers. We offer a space for victims to speak their truth and have their stories be told in the ways they want them to be and memorialize the lives of those who are no longer here and give them a sense of dignity they so righteously deserve.  Although the real change may not happen until every news company puts the victim's stories above the men who murdered them, the light can still be turned on.  We can still do our part not to forget the lives of these victims, to view them not in the way in which they died and whose hands were around their neck but to see them as they were, and to listen and validate the stories of the victims who still live on. 
Speak Up, Act Out, Lights On!
Join us at LightsOnforchange.com