October 22, 2007

Just Another Day In The Neighborhood


There was another horrendous crime in Cleveland over the weekend. Not that it's anything unusual-- there is always a crime being commited somewhere around town, but this one was especially mind-boggling.

It seems that a fifteen year old went back to visit her old neighborhood. She was spotted by a seventeen year old rival, who then went and got her 32 year old mother, her 19 year old male cousin, and sixty year old grandmother. They returned to the scene, armed with knives and a stun gun, and held back the crowd, while the seventeen year old stabbed the fifteen year old to death. A friend of the victim was also stabbed.

Violence--fighting, stabbings, shootings, (drive-by and otherwise) robberies, rape, and murder-- is an ongoing occurrence around here. Only a few weeks ago, a little girl was shot to death, an innocent bystander who just happened to be in the line of fire between two men who were shooting at each other. And this goes on in the neighborhoods, day after day. Not to mention the swarm of thieves who descended on some foreign tourists in one of the nicer parts of the city a few months ago. No doubt they have some great vacation memories to share--along with a warning never to visit Cleveland if you value your life and belongings.

I don't know why I am writing about this--I'm not even from this area, so it is not like I am grieving over my own hometown. I live here because of my husband's employment. It just saddens me to think that it has to be like this--that people have to behave this way--here, or anywhere else. Besides, it serves no purpose. It does no good. It does not change a single thing. It will not bring back the lives of the innocent, nor those of the guilty. It will not heal one broken heart. It will not restore one bit of lost faith that was once placed in the future of what was once a great city.

Maybe, I do just need to stick my head in the sand, and pretend that bad things don't happen. Maybe, I wouldn't hurt so badly over things that I can't change.