3201 EUCLID AVENUE CLEVELAND, OHIO 44115

391-3912

Cleveland Rape Crisis Center

LACK OF FUNDS MAY CLOSE CENTER JULY 1

The Cleveland Rape Crisis Center has been providing assistance to victims of rape throughout Cuyahoga County since 1974. During that time the Center has also developed an extensive program to educate the community about the character and dimensions of the crime.

We are now handling at least 60 new cases each month, and our 24-hour crisis line logged almost 5,000 calls in 1978. In addition, the Center has an active Speakers' Bureau and a bimonthly newsletter, offers in-service training workshops and a selfdefense class, and has initiated a project to alert downtown businesspeople to methods of protecting themselves from crime.

Since 1976 the Rape Crisis Center has received most of its financial support from the Cleveland and Gund Foundations. With their help we have grown into a vital, active service that is a credit to the community we serve.

As a result of our efforts in the areas of service and education, we now find for the first time that women. are able to talk openly about the problem of rape. Many victims of the crime are more willing to report their victimization to the police, knowing that our services are available to assist them through the criminal justice system.

Much has been accomplished during the last five years. Our success in providing personal, caring services has resulted in an increase in the number of persons who contact us for help. However, much remains to be done. There is still no standard procedure for hospital emergency rooms or police departments dealing with rape cases, a problem which affects not only the treatment of the victim, but hinders prosecution of rape cases. Consequently, the treatment may be neither appropriate nor timely and the prosecution of the assailant less than vigorous. Of the 424 rape cases documented in 1977, 62.7 percent were reported to the police. Of these,

Clio's Musings

On June 10, 1692, in Salem, Massachusetts, Bridget Bishop became the first accused witch to swing from the rope on Gallows Hill. Nineteen other villagers died by the rope in one of American history's most shameful periods of bigotry toward women. The seed of fear spread from the playful antics of the parson's daughter and two of her cousins, ages nine and eleven. The girls' primary fun was listening to stories of devils and voodoo told by their father's West Indian slave, Tituba. One day the girls appeared to exhibit (rances, fits and hysteria. Fearful parents and neighbors summoned the village doctor who diagnosed the cause as an "evil hand". Frightened adults urged the girls to name the witches responsible. Resisting at first, which caused more fear, they finally named three women. No further proof was needed for the villagers to condemn their neighbors. Today, using such words as lesbian or Communist instills the same irrational fear, stripping innocent people of their right to live in freedom.

On June 28, 1778, Molly Pitcher helped win the Battle of Monmouth in New Jersey. The wife of artilleryman John Hayes, she answered the cries of the parched fighting men for her pitcher of water. An eyewitness records that Molly took up her husband's post when he was shot down. She loaded the cannon,

only 11.3 percent resulted in arrests and only 1.9 percent in conviction and sentencing.

Now, due to a shortage of funds, the Center faces the possibility of closing by July 1, 1979. In May, the Center received further grants from the Cleveland and Gund foundations totaling $37,500. The Center needs an additional $50,000. Last November, we mailed more than 1,300 letters to citizens, social service agencies, hospitals and police departments throughout the county asking for donations. We received only $2,000,

Federal funding may be available in the future. Senate Bill 621, which can establish a National Center for Prevention and Control of Rape, includes amendments to establish a grant and contract program to support direct services to rape victims. Senator Edward Kennedy, Chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Health and Scientific Research, has not scheduled hearings on this legislation. (Readers of this newspaper will recognize Mr. Kennedy of S.1437 fame.)

Federal funding of anti-rape programs and crisis centers is an issue which worries many feminists. Federal money means federal control. Government regulations would probably require that all rape counsellors have "credentials", which would effectively limit input by the only real experts in the area of rape assistance, the feminist peer counsellors who have done the vast majority of work with victims so far. Co-optation is a constant threat when large amounts of federal money are involved. It is not in the interests of the patriarchy to fund its own demise. Meanwhile, help from concerned individuals is still badly needed. Donations to the Rape Crisis Center are tax deductible. Don't let the valuable programs at CRCC die for lack of funds. You can write to: The Cleveland Rape Crisis Center 3201 Euclid Avenue Cleveland, Ohio 44115

and "like a Spartan heroine fought with astonishing bravery, discharging the piece with as much regularity as any soldier present".

About one hundred years later, on June 17, 1873, Susan B. Anthony stood trial for voting in a state election in Rochester, New York. Federal Judge Ward Hunt described her as "small-brained, palefaced, prim-looking". Before some of her voting sisters sitting in the front of the carved wooden balustrade, the judge decided Anthony was guilty and directed the all-male jury to find her so without a vote. The next day the judge asked if she had any presentence comments. "Yes, your honor, I have many things to say," replied Susan. She began a long list of outrages, despite repeated attempts to silence 'her. After she stopped, Judge Hunt fined her one hundred dollars. "May it please your honor," Anthony declared, “I shall never pay a dollar of your unjust penalty." She never did.

Excerpted from The American Woman's Gazetteer by Lynn Sherr and Jurate Kazickes, Bantam Books, 1976.

-Paula A. Copestick