To Be Free We Must Be Brave

Last night I ordered my mom an iPad.  That’ll make her the first in our family to have one (besides Kris, who beat her to it by a week).  If you’re wondering why this is news, let me tell you a little about my mom.

Despite the fact that she’ll be 78 in September, she’s at Curves before 7 a.m., volunteers at the local emergency room every Monday, and  founded The Outreachers, a seniors’ fund-raising and volunteer group providing school supplies and tutors to disadvantaged students at a local school. Nevertheless, she’s a late bloomer when it comes to technology… converting to a microwave only under protest, still calling her refrigerator the ice box, only recently figuring out how to answer her cell phone, and surprised to learn, last spring, that the web is worldwide. But, as she explained to me as we sat on our dock last week, she doesn’t want to be left behind.  I’m proud of her in the same way she must have been proud of me when I finally had the courage to get all the way through a sleepover!

It takes courage to try something new, do something you dread, admit you were wrong, stand your ground, say “yes,” go out on a limb, ask for help, explore the unknown, or trust your gut.

When I meet people like Kathy Robertson, who gets up every day determined to save the lives of girls like her daughter, Abby, the word that comes to me isn’t courage, it’s MADHEN – Mothers Against Degradation, Harm, Enslavement, Neglect. In the manner of two mothers who founded MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) 31 years ago, Kathy refused to let grief paralyze her in 2008, when Abby was stalked and brutally murdered by an ex-boyfriend, and she’s on the mission to have a law enacted that will make date and relationship violence education mandatory in junior and high schools across the country.

If you’re a mother,  these acronyms’ use of the word MAD surely resonates with you as it does with me.

It was the outrage of another mother and father that led to passage of the Crime Awareness and Campus Security Act of 1990, renamed The Clery Act in 1998. Championed by Howard & Connie Clery after their daughter Jeanne was murdered at Lehigh University in 1986, this law requires colleges and universities across the United States to disclose information about crime on and around their campuses. Because the law is tied to participation in federal student financial aid programs it applies to most institutions of higher education both public and private and  is enforced by the U.S. Department of Education.

As July unfolds, many of you may be savoring your last several weeks with a college-bound child. Taking this opportunity to get smart about campus safety and ensure that she’s educated about dating abuse, made aware of sexual assault statistics for college students, and schooled in basic self-defense, are the most important steps you can take to ensure that your child doesn’t become one of the victims in those statistics.

It takes courage to think worst-case scenario, but what better gift to give your child? Better to be brave and and to make sure she’s ready, then to have a mission like MADD or Abby’s Voice be what gets you out of bed in the morning, rather than the sound of your daughter ‘s laughter.

Wishing you a safe and Happy Fourth of July… as our country celebrates its freedom let’s make sure we all continue to fight for the right to be free from assault.