Hello World

Do I really need to write a Hello World post? Two days ago, my 16 year-old daughter was mugged. She was walking to Blockbuster with a friend at about 10 PM when two guys approached them. The two guys had a gun. The two guys took five bucks.

My daughter and her friend came home immediately. We called the police and talked. I thought...

I've worked a midnight shift for about 16 years, since about the time she was born. Driving around the city at night, through Cabrini-Green and the West Side, I've seen some things that I wish I could forget. I never wanted my daughter exposed to that. As the police asked about the two men, what they took, $5.00, I thought about the times I've had guns pulled on me. I thought about the time a parole officer didn't like the fact that I was white and he was black and by GOD! he was going to provoke a fight to right centuries of injustice. I didn't know he was armed. About other times when I wondered "why am I working at this hour in this neighborhood?"

You listen to your daughter, as she tells how two men about her age or maybe a bit older approached her and her friend. "Did they touch you?" No. Okay, that's good. Just $5, not a trip to the ER tonight.

I wanted to get in the car and look for these two bastards. I can say that about them here, can't I? I'm thinking now of the bloodless answer of Governor Dukakis when he was put on the spot in his run against George Bush. You're angry. You want to kill. Your daughter's safety, maybe her life, was jeopardized for $5. I'm nearing 50. I don't have guns in the house. There is only anger and pain in a future of vigilante justice.

There are signs on the highway to Bloomington, Illinois promoting gun use for home defense. Me, several gun experiences. Now my daughter, one. How many for that farmer?

Hello World. Tonight I'm thinking about my daughter. And five bucks. And two punks and their gun. Tomorrow, let's talk about something else. Hello World.