Yearning for a Peaceful Society

Last Saturday, a young woman disappeared after a shopping trip. Today her body was found and identified.

This particular story hits home to me more than most of the others because I used to shop at that Target. I know the area where they found the body. We recently sold a home a few miles away.

I haven't talked with my friends yet, but I can imagine their reactions. Will they let their daughters go shopping alone? I doubt it. Not for a while.

We expect to be safe when we shop and go about our daily lives. We don't expect kidnapping and murder. Familiar places become haunted with the ghosts of deadly possibilities.

A few weeks ago, there was a shooting in Kansas City at a mall where I used to shop. Oddly, another Target store was involved. The perpetrator was a security guard who killed two at the mall, after killing an older woman and stealing her car.

We moved away from Kansas City three years ago, and in some ways I'm glad that I don't have to face these events on a personal level. But if not Kansas City, where? Crime rates are rising drastically in all major U.S. cities. My son's teacher has a nephew who was killed in St. Louis last week.

Read the papers. Check the websites. Some cities report shootings every day. There are also home break-ins, rapes, and robberies. I was a burglary victim last fall. Someone walked away with my laptop, my cell phone, and over $200 from my purse--money I had just made from selling some of my books. Two suspects were caught and there hasn't been any more trouble, but I never feel safe in this house. That's one reason I'll be very happy to move next week.

War overseas. Mayhem at home. Isn't it time we demanded an end to all the killing?

Isn't it time we demanded peace?