The darkness in this world is not theoretical.

The darkness in this world is not conditional.

The murder of school children, teachers and administrators in Newtown, Connecticut is horrific evidence that evil darkness beats in the human heart and so those whose hearts are filled with light must put muscle and meaning behind the wings of those better angels.

And lift, in this case, Madeline's House to a new home.

The Cumberland County Board of Supervisors voted to appropriate the requested $3,000 being sought from all of the counties whose residents-and they are virtually all women and children-need Madeline's House to save their lives from domestic violence.

They join Buckingham, Prince Edward, and Nottoway, among others, who've signaled their readiness to fund the down payment on a new home for Madeline's House.

Cumberland County is among the localities that attached no strings. True, most of the money had already been budgeted by the County for Madeline's House but Supervisors boosted the amount and made it unconditional.

No ifs.

No buts.

If Brunswick County's Board of Supervisors agrees to join the other counties that have agreed to appropriate $3,000-some on the condition that all the counties do so-then Madeline's House will be positioned to find the new home it needs to replace the 33-bed shelter it must vacate in Nottoway County to accommodate a U.S. Department of Foreign Affairs Security Training Center project and its use of 1,500 acres at Fort Pickett.

The Amelia and Dinwiddie County Boards of Supervisors have also approved funding, unconditionally, while Buckingham, Nottoway and Prince Edward have voted to do so if all participating counties also agree to follow through.

Now it is up to Brunswick County.

Domestic violence is not theoretical.

Domestic violence is not conditional.

When domestic violence attacks it does so unconditionally. There are no theoretical bruises, no theoretical bleeding, nobody dying in theory only. They are killed by hands filled with blood pumped by a heart that once love them.

Protecting women and children from the horror of domestic violence is also a hands-on experience.

Both of them.

All of them.

But we cannot allow one county's decision to deprive a region of the domestic violence safe house shelter it so desperately needs.

Let's hope Brunswick County makes it impossible for Buckingham, Prince Edward or Nottoway Counties to act on their condition and withdraw funding, or refuse to appropriate the $3,000. But if Brunswick County does the unthinkable then that trio of counties should not hesitate to reconsider their conditional funding and make it unconditional.

To allow the area's domestic violence shelter to disappear off the face of the Earth is indefensible, as defenseless as the women and children will be if that decision is made.

Buckingham, Prince Edward, and Nottoway have, like Cumberland, demonstrated support for Madeline's House. Nottoway County provided Madeline's House space rent-free for years. So there is a history of commitment among the counties that have stepped forward, whether the down payment appropriation is conditional or not.

The belief here is that all the counties that have made a pledge of $3,000 will come through with the funding because they understand the very real need and lack of any surviving alternative.

-JKW-