While reading about Lincoln's latest violent death -- it hasn't yet been ruled a homicide -- I noted that there were three prior homicides this year. There were five homicides per year over the past several years. The odd thing? I could only remember a couple.
Maybe it's a defense mechanism. Maybe I'm too focused on other things. Maybe the media didn't cover the murders well. Whatever the case, it's very odd to me that I live in a community where five people are murdered each year and I barely remember the scantest details about each one. I get the feeling most Lincolnites have similarly sparse memories of the victims and their deaths. It's ultimately a good thing that life goes on. But -- and this isn't supposed to be a loaded question even though it looks like one -- does it say anything about us as community members or as a whole community that our memories are so short?
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It caught my attention because I live 4 blocks away. But if you’ve spent a lot of years in a big city like St. Louis, where 167 people were murdered last year, one more is just a small blip on the radar screen.
It always is surprising to see a homicide in the news because it happens so infrequently here. There are towns 1/6 of our size that have 2-3 times as many murders a year. Conversely, because it happens so infrequently, we probably forget that it happens here at all. If you have lived in some of the places I have, Lincoln can often seem like Mayberry circa 1960.
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