Battered Women Remembered

On Oct. 18th, the Domestic Violence Project SAFE House in conjunction with community members held the fifth annual Candlelight Vigil in honor of battered women who have died, and in celebration of those who have survived. About 200 women and men attended the memorial.

According to a 1983 report by U.S. Attorney General William French Smith, battering is the single major cause of injury to women, exceeding rapes, muggings and even car accidents in this country. More than one million abused women seek medical help for injuries caused by battering each year. And three out of four women murdered in this country are killed by their husbands or lovers.

Domestic violence activist. Moe Fitzsimons said, "Women who work in shelters for abused women and children use statistics to make people aware of the scope of domestic violence. However, statistics don't let people know the details of the personal lives brutalized by the violence.

"Carole Wadell is now a statistic. She was living in a Mt. Clemens, Michigan battered women's shelter, four months away from her divorce being final." On Sept. 20, 1988, Wadell's husband followed her to work at Selfridge Air National Guard base and shot her to death, then killed himself. Fitzsimons named all the women in Michigan who have been killed by husbands or lovers after which everyone lit candles.

SAFE House Director, Susan McGee explained that in almost every battering situation, there is a clear perpetrator. It is not mutual abuse. Almost always, the perpetrator is a man who is assaulting a woman although in some rare cases a woman batters a man. She told audience members "If you are in an abusive relationship, you are not alone, you are not to blame and you can get help."

During the program women were asked to come forward and write the name of their assailant or their relationship to them on a pad of newsprint standing on an easel. Following this, there was an open microphone for women who wanted to share their experience with the group. The program ended with the whole group forming a large circle and joining hands for the singing of "Fight Back" by Holly Near and "Song of the Soul" by Cris Williamson.

The Domestic Violence Project|SAFE House 24 hour crisis line is 995 -544, the Assault Crisis Center is 994-1616(24 hour) and the Women' 's Crisis Center is 994-9100.

Outside Washtenaw County, call the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence 24-hour hotline at 1-800-333 -SAFE.