You don’t want to see the yellow police line tape attached to your house, not ever. It’s one thing when you see it on TV. Then it’s impersonal, in fact we have become desensitized to it even in reality shows. I suspect the reason is that we really don’t differentiate very well between an actor playing a role and some poor slob so desperate for attention, money, or both that they are willing to sell their privacy for pennies on the dollar.

I know, love, and work with people who do wonderful work in violence reduction. It’s important work, and I continue to support it fully – but right now my wife can’t sleep because she’s worried that we will be next, and there are no words of reassurance that will make it better. Even though it was the man next door who was murdered, our lives have been disrupted in a very real way, too. If I could, I would find who killed Bob and return the favor, not because of what they did to him but because of what they are doing to my family on an ongoing basis. Of course, that wouldn’t take away Erin’s fear nor would it make our grandchildren any safer. The truth is that while I believe we have to reduce the violence in our cities I cannot imagine hanging around the scene of the violence one moment longer than absolutely necessary. Forasmuch as I understand the reasons for the violence, I do not find them adequate as a justification for the violence. As for the group of black pastors who are demanding a gun buy back program, all I can say is that I have never seen a more bloated pool of impotent fools proposing non-solutions for their own aggrandizement that this group of morons. Does anybody whose IQ exceeds their shoe size really believe gang members are going to turn in their guns for $100 – $200 if it’s an assault rifle?

Maybe our cities are a lost cause, I honestly don’t know. I do know this, we are getting out and it’s not because I don’t care, or because I am a racist, or any other such bullshit. It’s because enough is enough, and I have no interest in becoming a martyr on behalf of liberals everywhere. There’s no rhyme or reason to what happens in our cities, it’s just a bunch of people at their wit’s end who have little respect for anything or anyone getting their jollies destroying their own. If they had any brains or any guts they would drive out to the suburbs where someone would give a damn about the violence they inflict, but these aren’t principled revolutionaries these are just people with more rage than insight. Because of that, and because the corporations that run our country and own our politicians gave up on our cities decades ago, I am afraid things are going to get much worse before they get better.

Meanwhile, I will be long gone.