Another week, and another horror story in the news which begs the inevitable question “How on earth could this happen?”
Cleveland, home of the Rock’N’Roll Hall of Fame, is not a place you would expect to be the focus. Three young girls were taken by a strange man, and held prisoner inside his house for up to ten years. The story ultimately had a happy ending as the girls, who are now women, were reunited with family, but the details of their nightmare are one of those dark corners where none of us want to go.
Most disturbing are questions about why the situation continued for so long without someone in the neighbourhood, or the police, realizing that something truly awful was happening.
Out here on the Canadian prairies we pride ourselves on the values of ‘community’ and the comfort of knowing that neighbours will be there for us in times of trouble. What happened to those halcyon days when doors were never locked and you knew everyone on your street? At times like this it seems those days never really existed, except in the minds of the scriptwriters for Leave it to Beaver.
More and more we live in a digital electronic world. In some sense, we’re ‘connected’ to others like never before. I know a couple of months from now, when my birthday rolls around, I will get a raft of lovely greetings from dozens of my friends on Facebook. I might even know a few of them personally.
Instead of spending so much time worrying ourselves sick about things like cyber-bullying, wouldn’t we all be better off to walk next door, or down the hall in our apartment building and connect with the person behind that door?
Maybe take just a couple of hours a week away from the I-pad or the smart phone, and make eye contact with a member of our community.
I’m Roger Currie
The opinions expressed by Roger Currie and those providing comments are theirs alone, and do not reflect the opinions of CTV or Bell Media or any employee thereof. CTV or Bell Media is not responsible for the accuracy of any of the information supplied by Roger Currie.
