Hometowns

No matter where our lives lead us, revisiting our hometowns is inevitable. That little corner ice cream parlor, Uncle Sal's barber shop on Main St., the cinema downtown where Alex and you had your first kiss: these are all memories we like to reminisce on. But many of our hometowns have been idealized in our minds to a point where the worse details are blurred away.

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My hometown is Stevensville, MI--about ten miles away from the west coast of Lower Michigan. My pass-times as a child were riding my purple bike behind Martin's Food Market and the old video store, where my neighbor, Kevin, and I came across the nicest people on a daily basis; and by "nicest people" I mean men in their thirties giving each of us a candy bar behind the video store. The everyday circumstance never struck us as uncomfortable or unsafe; after all, Stevensville, MI was a safe place to call home...right?

Let's expand on this "safe" community...
As for sex offenders, Stevensville, MI has 317 in a ten-mile radius of my first home. One of these 317 men and women is Robert Mcintyre, who lived (and still lives) across the street and down four houses from the place I called home. Mcintyre, a 61 year old 6'02"African American man, was a mental health professional put on the sex offender list for fourth degree criminal sexual assault.

I look back at the young, dreaming, innocent girl I was back then...I wouldn't have hesitated if the man had asked me for assistance or asked me to come into his home during my paper route. Would you have? 

Here's a few statistics I pulled from my hometown area; the facts are truly shocking.
There were 1013 accounts of burglary, 74 accounts of forcible rape, 139 accounts of robbery, 1041 accounts of aggravated assault,  102 accounts of auto-theft, and 1180 accounts of larceny per 62 miles in 2012. Let's break this down... that's about 16.4 held-up drug stores, 1.2 raped girls, 2.5 mothers beaten and robbed, 17 beatings, 1.7 missing cars, and 19 stolen computers each square mile that year.

As I've grown older, my knowledge of predators has widened--perhaps to a point of paranoia. Okay, no, I don't shelter myself indoors all day, every day rocking in the fetal position with a pet rock. I'm pro- living life. I'm pro- letting my future children live life. But let God strike me with lightning if I ever let my family roam town like I did as a child without being as aware and protected as possible of the dangers lurking. It's as they say: "Be safe rather than sorry."

I urge you, my readers, to visit www.kidslivesafe.com or NSOPW and check on the city you call home, or download the Android/iPhone app Life360: Sex Offender Search. It's well worth your time; I know it was for me.