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Community Activism
| Article
# : |
14734 |
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Section : |
LIFE
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| Issue
Date : |
11 / 1988 |
1,591 Words |
| Author
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Robin Parker
Robin Parker, Life editor of THE WORLD & I, was formerly a
health-care professional. |
You awaken to the roar of traffic and discover that your peaceful side street has become an alternate route to a major highway for the next six moths. What do you do? Ignore it? Complain to your next-door neighbor? Or become a community activist?
Activism today, different in mood from the bra-burning, violent demonstrations of the sixties, is a way to make positive changes in your community, ranging from getting more streetlights to electing a new state senator.
The Roper family of Clinton, Maryland, formed a statewide organization to help victims of crime. Their move toward activism was a reaction to the callous treatment they'd experienced at the hands of the justice system during the trial of their daughter's brutal rapists/murderers.
During Easter vacation, 1982, their only daughter, Stephanie Ann, came home from Frostburg State College, from which she was due to graduate cum laude. She and a friend went out one evening, but Stephanie didn't come home. The police wrote her off as just another runaway. Her body might never have been found if one of the two men who murdered her hadn't bragged about how they'd taken turns raping her while driving through three counties. After taking her to a dilapidated farmhouse, they continued to rape, beat, and burn her and then shot and dismembered her.
During the court proceedings, the parents felt that it wasn't the murderers who were on trial, but their daughter. The Ropers were not permitted to defend Stephanie's character or to display any emotion; they were even barred from the courtroom. The two men,
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