Madd

Debra L. Karantonis
Dr.Melanie McBride
English 102
December 6, 2013

Mothers Against Drunk Driving
This essay is about a nationally known lobbying group known as MADD or Mothers Against Driving. This is an organization that was first created by a woman named Candy Lightner whom in 1980 tragically lost her daughter to a repeat offense drunk driver. This organization or lobbying group works very hard and whose goal is to keep drivers off the road who have had too much to drink and to also make sure that drunk driving laws are enforced. The thesis statement is “Mothers Against Drunk Driving has arguably been one of the most successful public-health grassroots citizen advocacy organizations in the United States in the past century.”(Fell and Voas).
This whole idea of MADD started years ago when Candy Lightner’s daughter Cari, was walking with her friend and was struck and killed by a man who left the scene of the accident, and was drunk driving. After she was told that he actually was only out of jail for two days after being arrested for another hit- and- run drunk- driving crash. His record had reflected three other arrests-two resulted in convictions and one was reduced to a reckless driving offense. It was soon after this that Candy Lightner and a few friends started MADD to fight against drunk drivers. The first chapter that was started in Maryland was by another woman named Cindi Lamb who was trying to fight the fact that her five month old daughter became paralyzed by a repeat drunk driver offender as well. The two women were brought together by a press secretary to congress and had a news conference that brought a lot of attention to this impaired-driving problem that is everywhere. Soon all over the nation Candy Lightner was contacted to comment on high profile cases. This lobbying group was incorporated in 1980 as a California corporation.” By June of 1981 it had achieved IRS tax-free status: later in the year, it received$100,000 in private funds.”...