THE NATIONAL domestic violence hot line, once a source of hope and information for as many as 10000 women a month, was disconnected last June when its private grant ran out.
The individuals who operated the hot line apparently worked feverishly to find another sponsor, yet their struggle appears to have been essentially private and unknown to many. For many people, the impression is left that the hot line was there one day and gone the next.
"Many of us weren't aware that their circumstances were so dire," says Debby Tucker, executive director, Texas Council on Family Violence, referring to the Michigan Coalition Against Domestic Violence that had run the hot line since late 1988. "It appears that they just kept trying internally with all their strength to keep going. The rest of us were really caught by surprise that they were in that serious trouble."
(The Michigan Coalition had