To the editors:
Thank you for the story on Sister Connie Driscoll [“The View From the Shelter,” July 20]; she sounds like a strong, sincere person with some sound ideas. However, I must take issue with her almost offhand comment regarding displaced battered women (“Instead of them leaving their homes, I think they ought to kick the guy out! I think that anybody who beats on somebody else ought to be kicked out.”).
Perhaps I’ve misconstrued her quote; surely Sister Connie realizes that staying accessible and vulnerable to an abuser is often not in the best interests of the woman or her children. As a former counselor in a battered women’s shelter, I have seen too many terrified families–hiding from men determined to track them down and repossess them–to believe that kicking the guy out is a safe or common option.
In a perfect world, battered women could keep their homes and their dignity. Of course, in a perfect world, there would be no battered women.
Sylvia Hauser
Oak Park