Agency served 440 last year
WomenSpace offers abuse victims shelter
By SHARON KETNER
Of ItM Emerald
Government statistics and
sociological studies estimate
that once every 12 seconds a
woman is battered in the United
States
At least one out of every 10
married women is subjected to
severe and repeated beatings in
her own home Abused women
often have no access to funds or
transportation, no place to go
where they can find safety and
emotional support
Logo courtany Women Space
WomenSpace, a community
agency dedicated to helping
battered women was formed in
1977 by a group of women who
had been battered themselves
It provides a 24-hour crisis line
and a temporary shutter house,
which served 440 women and
children in 1980
The shelter is equipped to
provide food, clothing and even
toothbrushes for families who
must leave everything behind to
escape an abuser The location
of the shelter is strictly con
fidential
Other services of
WomenSpace include 24-hour
emergency transportation (with
police back-up if necessary),
and counseling and advocacy
to help women explore housing,
financial and legal options
Support groups are conducted
weekly in the shelter
Karen Frazier, a Women
Space volunteer, outlines the
agency's philosophy
"As participants in
WomenSpace, we believe that
every person has the right to live
a life free from violence and the
fear of abuse
"Domestic violence is a result
of a culture which condones
violence as a means of conflict
resolution, especially among
men
"The overall goal of
WomenSpace is the empower
ment of women through main
taining a shelter house and
support services, and advoca
ting a woman's right to live a life
free from abuse.”
WomenSpace defines abuse
in three ways
• Physical abuse any act or
behavior that inflicts or is in
tended to inflict bodily harm
• Emotional abuse including
ridicule or demeaning remarks
and sarcasm
• Threatened violence
verbal expressions of intent to
inflict bodily harm, whether or
not they are carried out
There are several myths sur
rounding domestic violence,
which Women Space tries to
debunk, Frazier says It is com
monly believed that the abuser
is goaded into violence by the
woman, she says
"There is no justification for
violence Whenever people are
living intimately, there are
bound to be disagreements,
Frazier says
"Certainly people provoke
each other, but that’s no excuse
for a beating There are other
ways to resolve conflicts We
feel that violent behavior is
always the responsibility of the
violent person "
Many people think the abused
woman remains in the home
because she likes it
MILLER NIGHT
Thur. Nov. 19
8 pm to Closing
12 oz Cups of Miller
40c
door prizf:s and drawings
Remember, Dimers every
Monday night S*-10:30 pm
located 1-5 and 30th Ave.
Across from lane C.C.
“None of the women who call
us on the telephone or stay in
the shelter like being beaten
They stay for a variety of rea
sons that are complex.
“Breaking up a family is a
heavy thing Sometimes they
might stay because the children
aren’t abused Sometimes they
stay because they’re eco
nomically dependent,” Frazier
says
"They’ve often been pri
soners in their own homes, have
no friends and no self-esteem,
and they think they can’t make it
on their own.”
Continued on Page 8
checks and balances
rights for Nazis, too?
By RON HUNT
Of ttw Emerald
Everybody loves to see justice done — on
somebody else
"Justice,'' By Bruce Cockburn
The television movie "Skokie” dramatizes
the tension between free speech for views we
cherish and for those we despise
Skokie is a suburb of Chicago,
predominantly Jewish, and includes many
survivors of Nazi concentration camps During
1977 and 1978, suburb residents fought to
prevent an American Nazi group from
marching through its streets
"Skokie,” a dramatization shown Tuesday
night on CBS, posed basic questions on the
free speech vital to an increasingly pluralistic
campus and society
At a protest meeting, an Anti-Defamation
League representative tells the Jews to
"quarantine”: the worst thing to do is give the
Nazis a platform
Turn your back Refuse to give them
the confrontation they want.
A concentration camp survivor in "Sko
kie"' named Max Feldman says he's heard that
line before.
In Germany! They came from the Big City,
very fine professional gentlemen from national
Jewish organizations They said. “Storm
troopers? Just hoodlums in the street. Don't
pay any attention "
Feldman shouts "not this time” and shows
his arm, revealing his tattooed number from a
death camp
If you don't want violence, don't let the
Nazis march!
Later, the village of Skokie used this
argument in the Cook County Circuit Court,
And the judge agreed: "I believe he (Nazi
leader Frank Collin) intends trouble, to incite to
riot,"
The American Civil Liberties Union attor
ney, himself a Jew, protested that Skokie's
request for prior restraint was based on the
"heckler's veto” argument — prohibiting
someone from speaking because his oppo
nents threaten violence.
The ACLU, defending Collin, said its client
was merely planning a 20-minute peaceful
march.
From the teleplay it appears Skokie Jews
were ditching their responsibility Why is reac
tionary violence the initiator’s fault? The
trauma and agony heaped upon Jews from the
Holocaust cannot be belittled, but is violent
reaction by a survivor anyone’s fault but his?
At the show's end, the second attorney
quotes Oliver Wendell Holmes: "Not free
thought for those who agree with us, but
freedom for the thought we hate ”
If groups — Nazis, Jews, Communists,
Christians, John Birchers, Muslims, ad infini
tum — are, at various times and places, un
popular and therefore silenced, would the
"popular" view automatically be right?
To shut up violent groups would merely be
a Band-Aid The cancer would remain in
society Venom comes from the gut, not the
vocal chords
Everybody loves to hear silence — from
somebody else
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