DEAR ABBY: You did it again -- you passed on another lie: that 4,000 women are killed by their spouses each year. This lie emanated from Rep. Eva Clayton, D-N.C. The FBI Uniform Crime Statistics, compiled from law enforcement reports from around the U.S., puts the number between 1,200 and 1,400.
One simply cannot rely on information provided by battered women's shelters or feminists; they have the bad habit of making up figures in order to facilitate the notion that women are victims and men are the major abusers. They have done this again and again, and if you unwillingly aid and abet these liars, that makes you a liar, too.
In Montana, only 20 women have been killed in the past 10 years by their spouses; however, if the supposed rate of 4,000 per year applied, the figure should be about 260.
I ask you to make a written apology to your readers for willfully passing out erroneous information and denigrating men. -- JASON LARIX, MISSOULA, MONT.
DEAR JASON: The figures I printed came from the National Center for Violence Prevention, St. Louis, Mo. They claim that the 4,000 figure is conservative. (Not all murders are necessarily recorded as homicides -- some might be classified as "hunting accidents," "boating accidents" or "cause of death ... undetermined.") The true number may never be known. However, I will stand corrected if I hear from other reliable sources.
I have never knowingly lied to my readers. If I have made a mistake, I correct it at the first opportunity. Taking a stand against battering (which is an issue that crosses gender lines) is not about women conspiring against and/or denigrating men. The majority of men are as concerned about battering and violence as I am. You obviously fail to see the importance of addressing and intervening in this societal epidemic. As the old song goes, "How many deaths will it take 'til they know, that too many people have died?" Think about it.