During August 92 people were shot dead in Chicago neighborhoods, among 1,300 shot and killed or wounded since Jan. 1. Many of the wounded will have debilitating effects for months, years, even a lifetime.
According to the Wall Street Journal, August victims who survived included a 10-year-old, shot while playing in front of his house (the bullet ripped through his pancreas, intestines, kidney and spleen); an 8-year-old girl shot in the arm while crossing a street; two 6-year-old girls.
Fortunately, nationwide statistics give a different view. We have less violence than in the 1970s, with the exception of outages such as Chicago’s.
We are exceedingly safe in Iola, although we did have the murder this year of Shawn Cook, and the arrests of the five people alleged to have been responsible. Even so, most any time of day or night it would take someone exceedingly paranoid to fear walking our streets.
Our officers, whom we can credit for keeping Iola, Humboldt and the area safe for all ages, are friends and neighbors and in most cases subscribe to former Sheriff Tom Williams’ admonition on how they should approach daily patrols and activities: “Watch Cops less and Andy Griffith more” — recognizing people with a smile and a wave and be sympathetic during personal contacts. In other words, avoid arrogance, harsh treatment and impulsiveness. An understanding ear goes far, and a warning often is as meaningful as a ticket.
I grew up in a time when local policing was more casual. For years Allen County had a sheriff and undersheriff— no deputies — who were reactive, rather than proactive. Drug use in rural America then was the exception.
In Humboldt we had one officer who had a couple of cows and when he came on duty each morning his first chore was to deliver milk to several customers around town. Another was more apt to call a parent and mention that Bobby was driving too fast than to stop the lad himself.
The social environment changed in the 1960s, with fast-growing opposition to the Vietnam War testing authority, and availability of marijuana and hallucinogens. Robust economic growth also opened doors Ward and June Cleaver would have slammed shut.
I know we can’t go back to the halcyon days of post-WWII, and there is no reason to want to. We do take more precautions today — who doesn’t lock their doors when turning in each night — and we must guard against outbursts of evil.
Racism, sexism and xenophobia, which have reared their ugly heads in Donald Trump’s campaigning, must be thwarted before they’re allowed to take deeper roots.
Love your neighbor as thyself should be more than a Biblical admonition.
