Wife Batterer’s Words Comforted Him

Thank you Lynn Smith for your article, “O.J. Should Talk with the Batterers, Not Women” (Nov. 15) and thanks especially to Paul Montana [a wife batterer trying to get help].

I am a batterer in a court-mandated counseling program who can get no help or answers. That article stopped my tears temporarily and let me know I am not alone.

Thank you Paul Montana for sharing. I hope it comforted others as it comforted me.

K.W. RICE

Reseda

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One sentence in that article says it all about Paul Montana’s woman-battering penchant.

“These days he goes home alone after work, knocks off a couple of beers, puts his feet up and works on essays with titles like ‘What’s the Point?’ ”

Anyone connected with drug / alcohol abuse will recognize in that sentence two classic symptoms of a wife beater: the use of a couple of beers by the batterer to come to the conclusion that he or she is somehow the victim of some sinister problem that is totally unrelated to the ingestion of mind-altering substances.

Or . . . to put it simply: As with most problems in relationships, take the drugs and alcohol out of the equation and then let’s see what is really going on.

RALPH W. EMERSON III

Ventura