Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 17, 1990 TAG: 9006150290
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: Earle Irwin
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Those of us who know her recoiled in shock at learning of her attack. This type of horrendous offense is not supposed to happen to someone we know, not supposed to happen within the safety of the New River Valley. But it has.
In addition to empathizing with her, I find myself identifying with her terror. It could have been me. It could have been any woman in the New River Valley.
Like my friend, I had not thought twice about the potential danger of walking in the park or down city sidewalks. Now my friend has been denied her right to safe passage in these places, denied in the most violent, violating of ways.
To add insult to injury, just as she was venturing the first steps toward emotional recovery, she was slapped in the face with the walking papers of her perpetrator - after two nights in jail, he made his bond and walked free until his trial.
I wonder if my friend, or those of us who associate with the violation she endured, will ever walk that way again.
Bissett Park is not the same for me. This is the place where I've often run before dawn, watching the sun rise over the ridge that shelters the park. Will it ever hold that beauty and sense of awe for me again?
Now when I jog at noon, instead of unwinding from work stress, I feel myself becoming increasingly tense. When overtaken by a male jogger who closely passes my shoulder, my knees buckle in sheer fright.
I am distracted by the whistle-on-chain that bangs against my chest - a new precaution for me. My friend was wearing a whistle. It, along with her presence of mind, helped to capture her assailant.
The size of the noon walking crowd in the park is notably diminished. The remaining women walk only in pairs. As many male joggers as ever circle the loop. They seem to have taken no additional precautions. Is our park, our city, our world a less safe place for those of us who are female because we are female?
Back at work, I describe my disturbance to a friend who frequently uses the park. She, too, experienced discomfort and trepidation during her one walk there since the attack.
She does not know my friend, yet she identifies with the violation and wonders if the park will ever again contain the sanctity it once held for her. She confides the sentiments of a co-worker who saw me in the park, "asking for trouble."
Does that premise make sense? Why can't a woman enjoy a walk through the park in her hometown on a beautiful spring day?
I am reassured that fellow citizens came to my friend's assistance. For that one man who wreaked destruction on my friend and on the spirits of women who identify with her, other men and women rallied to assist her.
I cannot begin to fathom all that my friend has lost. What can be gained is the resolve of our community to tell would-be perpetrators that their violence will not be tolerated.
Perhaps we will work to guarantee our mothers, daughters, sisters, spouses and friends the right to walk through our beautiful valley unencumbered with fears that they might be the next victims.
Perhaps we will all come to believe in the rights of each of us, regardless of sex, to be safe, to feel safe in this valley in which we live together.
by CNB