Thursday, April 3, 2014

News From the South

A few posts back, I wrote about some of the headlines that were on my local news station's website. I also frequent a news site that’s down by where Rachael lives.

After Rachael moved to her current apartment, one of the first things I did was to look for a news website in her area. This, I figured, would help me determine whether I should be worried about her, or really, really worried about her. The results have been mixed. On the first day that I bookmarked the site, there was a story about a couple of murders that happened within blocks of her home. That was a pretty good fit with what I had envisioned.

Over the last several months I've found that, while murder isn't uncommon, it’s not quite a daily event either. There are some positive stories. The other day, for example, the headline read, “Judge Denies Convicted Killer’s Shock Probation Request”. I found that to be good news.

On the other hand, recent stories have also covered flash mobs made up of the city's "youth". These mobs have been showing up and attacking pedestrians and convenience stores. Some parents of the accused have spoken up and said their children have been unfairly singled out. I'm assuming that what they mean is that while it's their kids that have been caught and arrested, the other kids have gotten away. Life is so unfair.

While there’s a lot on that site that makes me uneasy, there’s also a few “feel good” human interest stories. They currently have a slideshow up, titled: “Woman shows her love for the cats rule yard decorations". If you don’t quite follow that sentence, don’t blame me. I copied it verbatim off the website. Regardless, it get’s the feeling across. Here’s the first picture off the slideshow:


I didn't bother looking at the rest of the photos. I'm pretty sure that this picture says it all.

The weird (some might say “disturbing”) thing is that, except for the signs, this house looks eerily similar to mine.

I’m not sure how or if this ties into the seeming abundance of murder stories, but I feel like there’s a connection here somewhere. It's just one more reason I'll be glad when she's home.

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