TAMMY'S ANNIVERSARY: ONE FAMILY'S TRAGEDY SOBER REMINDER TO ALL

The voice on the telephone identified herself as JoAnn Zywicki, and in a vague way I knew I had heard it before. "I'm a resident of New Jersey and the mother of Tammy Jo Zywicki, whose dead body was found in your state," the caller said. Then she went on to explain the details: Tammy was killed en route to her college in Iowa, abducted along Interstate 80 in Illinois and transported, presumably in a semi-trailer, on I-44 in Missouri to a spot near Mt. Vernon in Lawrence County.

The details spurred recollection, and I recalled at least some of the story, which was widely publicized in the state and which had been investigated by the Highway Patrol, county sheriffs, the FBI and Illinois state police. I also remembered the efforts of family and even Grinnell College volunteers to learn more about Tammy's abduction and her suspected truck-driver killer.

Then the voice, now beginning to break, explained today was the first anniversary of her daughter's death, that someone had suggested I might be of some assistance to the family, and would I be willing to help. One would have to be callously indifferent to deny any mother such a wish and quickly offered my assistance. The request was minor and easily executed. Our conversation continued for nearly an hour, and before it was over, I felt part of a search that has been joined by hundreds of persons, many of them total strangers to a once bright and intelligent young college student who deserved a better fate than she received a year ago.

More than 20,000 Americans are murdered every year in America, a country that while becoming the most powerful in the world has also seen its citizens become the most vulnerable. Americans are killing Americans at a rate that far exceeds any in the civilized world and oftentimes in the uncivilized world. It would be nice to say our quiet Middle West state has been exempt from this crime growth but it wouldn't be true. Our two major cities are among the top five in the country in murder or rape. And while our urban areas become sodden with assault and death, our small towns and cities are increasingly becoming centers for drug sales and, worse, drug use and all the crime that goes with it.

More and more families like the Zywickis are being affected by the effects of this national criminal assault. For the past year, Tammy's parents, Hank and JoAnn, and her brothers have endured torment that still-untouched families dread and remain vulnerable to. Remembering Tammy has been painful, and the family has tried to assuage its grief by pursuing leads to her death and warning others of the unknown terror of losing someone dear from sudden violence and death.

As we talked for nearly an hour the other morning, JoAnn Zywicki complained the most about the lethargy that seemed to her to be paramount in the family's unending quest for the facts. The police had not always responded quickly, she charged, and sometimes they had committed foolish errors, such as the time officers accidentally destroyed some sales records kept by a Lawrence County service station. Pleas for help had been granted many times, but then the family would realize that they were being exploited by the unscrupulous. Sometimes the publicity, ranging from People magazine to nationally syndicated shows such as Oprah Winfrey's, had been less then factual, sometimes sensational. "We deserved better," JoAnn stated quietly and in a voice dulled by repetition of the words.

The Zywickis and every other family that has suffered similar tragedies do, indeed, deserve better. They deserve better not only because they are innocent victims of a horrible tragedy but because they are part of a nation that has achieved such greatness at so many levels and which now is in danger of becoming a jungle. A jungle in which survival becomes the most important component is no longer a nation but a series of embattled neighborhoods fighting an unknown but threatening enemy. When Americans must isolate themselves from other Americans, then we are no longer a nation, no longer a civilization, no longer a leader in the world.

Of all the dreams dreamed by our Founding Fathers, perhaps the most important was the vision of a people unafraid for their safety and unharmed by sinister forces. More than 200 years ago, the enemy was the British Crown, and over the years threats to America have ranged from totalitarian philosophies to invading armies. But never has our domestic tranquility been faced with an internal enemy with the force now mustered by American citizens willing to wage common war against society. Tammy Jo Zywicki, God rest her soul, is a sobering reminder that we are all potential victims in a war that now holds each of us hostage.