You may be reading about Tuscon today, tomorrow, for a long time to come. Yes, it is a tragedy of epic proportions. "A random act of violence" carried out by a lone individual. Somehow that term makes it seem safer, more distant from our everyday lives. Yet, I can't stop thinking about Jonoshia Alexander, the 17 year old girl killed recently in Milwaukee while walking home after getting off a bus from high school. She was an innocent victim of a 17 year old boy with a gun. He didn't know her, wasn't even shooting at her specifically.
I guess what is so troubling to me is that MY everyday life is so different than where Jonoshia lived. She was shot 2 miles directly west from my house in Shorewood. I am pretty sure it's been at least 30 years since anyone was killed in Shorewood by a person with a gun. When my kids were in their teens they had no reason to think anyone would be shooting a weapon in their neighborhood. That is not true for people living so close to me geographically, but so far away in terms of danger.
Why should being born in a different zip code mean that you have a much greater risk of dying from bullets? What is the difference between terrorism and people shooting each other in their own neighborhoods? Shouldn't Homeland Security mean that people living in American cities can expect to go about their business without being gunned down?
I wish I had answers.
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