The Current 1978-11-16

              Bill Monroe analyzes country
Jon Buchholtz
"This country is turning into a
nation of weak, little compact
cars!," he boomed. "Ever been hit
by a Pinto?, It's kinda pleasur- Nov. 8, in Lindbloom Student Cent- Monroe claimed that the "warm
able!" · er, and commented on subjects friendly" smile wasn't truly th~
Bill Monroe stood at the podium ranging from Jimmy Carter and symbol of Carter's administration.
,-----------------..... --- _...,. ____ i his turkey shooting, to content, fat He said that many people were
1 Americans. cynical about his smile-not relat-
Monroe, anchorman and execu- ing it to trust in the president's past
tive producer for Meet the Press promises.
met with prospective journalists Monroe back-tracked 12 years
Wednesday night before his prior to Carter being thrust into
"' scheduled speech in front of a office, citing three political assasi­near-
capa':'.itycrowd. He ate dinner nations, racial problems, the Viet­with
Green River Current staff nam war, campus riots, women's
members with invited high school rights creeping up, and the
students and advisors, then pa- crumbling of two presidents.
tiently answered questioned di- _ These events, Monroe stated, left
rected at him by the students. Americans untrusting, wrung out,
Fat Americans and bewildered.
Monroe illustrated U.S. citizens America then turned toward a
as content, attributing that fact to warm, friendly smile, in the pre­gluttony.
One stat reinforcing his sence of Jimmy Carter. An inex­point,
he said, was the 36 per cent perienced Governor from Georgia
turnout for the recent election. won the presidential vote when
"It doesn't matter who we elect," clearly, more educated, experienc­he
charged. "They all lie and ed men might have been the obvi­promise
us things that they don't ous choice, he observed.
go through with." Monroe added that beneficiaries
"As for Jimmy Carter," he con- of the low turnout at the polls are
tinued. "He was extremely inex- "the one-issue extremists." Asked
perienced when he was placed in how the low turn-out reflected
office. When people plunk in a man democracy in America, Monroe
with this amount of experience, shrugged, shifted his feet, and
they ought to expect to wait a described how happy and content
couple years. It takes a while to the United States is. Not much else
settle in." passed his lips concerning the
Carter, according to Monroe, in topic.
reality, is an introverted man who No matter whether or not Carter
depends too much on reading rath- straightens up America or the
er than talking to people such as man after him, or the ~an after
-------- labor leaders, key members of the him, Monroe concluded, Ameri­Bill
Monroe's view of America was optimistic. Congress about current matters. cans will be confident and content.
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U. S. POST AGE
PAID
Permit No. 184
Auburn, Wash.
Vol XIV No. 7 Green River Community College 12401 SE 320th AubumJVa. 98002
Battered Woman part 4
Shelter needed in South King County
This is the last of a four part
series on battered women.
"Wife battering is against the
law: It is wrong and should not be
tolerated."
These words are the battle cry of
a small group of_ people trying to
establish a shelter for battered
women in South King County. Bar­bara
Litzler-Zgonc, chairwoman
for the Committee to Establish
Emergency Shelter (CEES), said
research has shown the only real
hope for a battered woman is to be
able to leave her environment, so
she can make an unencumbered
-decision regarding her situation.
"Right now any kind of assault is
against the law. However, women
who are beaten by their spouses or
boyfriends frequently do not pur­sue
having the men arrested be­cause
she fears reprisal. The laws
are so loose that often the batterer
is back with the woman within a
few hours of his arrest," Litzler­Zgonc
stated.
"And generally the woman's
fears become a reality. She gets
beaten up worse than she was when
she had him arrested. That usually
convinces her not to continue with
prosecution; so the man goes free.
Now he knows he can beat her
whenever he wants without fear of
police interference," she ex­palained.
"And the woman is con­vinced
that there is no place to go
for help."
Right now in King County that's
just about the truth. There are only
three shelters, all in Seattle, with a
total of 33 beds, serving all of the
county. If a battered woman from
this area wants to get away from a
battering environment, there's vir­tually
no place to go, the chairwo­man
said.
A recent King County Council
study, Needs Assessment of Wo­men,
showed the 40 social agencies
in South King County listed the
need for a shelter for battered
women as their number two priori­ty.
Of the 1300 people interviewed
for the report, the need for a
shelter was listed as seventh on the
priority list, she said.
There will be proposed legisla­tion
for State Legislature next year
which will deal with tightening up
the current police procedures re­garding
domestic violence, Litzler­Zgonc
said.
"There is a need to strengthen
the viewpoint of the police that
battering is a crime rather than
just a family beef," she said. "Also,
the laws need to be changed so a
restraining order can be filed
against the batterer at any time,
and without prior legal action as is
now required." (Present law re­quires
that a restraining order can
only be filed if the woman has
already filed for a divorce or if she
is filing for legal custody of a
child. Also, the order can only be
filed during certain hours.)
"So many officers are totally
ignorant about the battering syn­drome,"
she said. "~ecently, I was
with a battered woman (her hus­band
had been beating her off and
on for ten years) at a local police
department. The officer's attitude
was that the woman must like to
get beat or she wouldn't stay with
the man. The woman I was with
informed the officer he was wrong.
But she told me that that attitude
was why she had never called the
police before; she felt the police
would take her husband's side of
the issue."
Lt. G. B. Bunker of the Auburn
Police Department, said he agrees
in part with LitzlerZgonc. "A lot of
officers are not as understanding
as they should be. We have to be
callused to some degree," Bunker
explained. "I believe, though, the
attitude of officers toward the
battered woman is much more
sympathetic today than it previ­ously
was," he added.
However, the lieutenant did ack­nowledge
that there are some real
problems with today's laws.
"Frankly, a restraining order is not
worth the paper it's written on," he
said. "There is an unwritten rule
among police agencies to give it
(the problems between a man and
woman) a couple of days to cool
down and see of if they can resolve
their problems without court pro­cess."
Bunker said this attitude has
developed because so many times
a woman will not follow through
with prosecution. "Most often
when we get a domestic call, it is
apparent the only thing the woman
wants is to stop the beating. When
we ask about prosecuting she gets
uptight and doesn't really want to
get the old man in trouble," he said.
"Often the women will turn on the
cops if they try to restrain her
husband."
"Domestic problems are prob­ably
the most emotionally charged
and dangerous situations outside
of a riot that an officer will walk
into/' the lieutenant stated. "We
would like to help, . but by law we
have no right to interfere in a
domestic situation. The victim
must ask us for help before we can
legally assist her," he said.
(Continued on page 2)