Every day, I am amazed at the extreme cultural differences there are between Geneva and Chicago. Murder is such a common occurrence there and I would never imagine Geneva being that dangerous. The other week, our football team played Richards High School. The topic of conversation the entire week was about their quarterback, Hasan Muhammad-Rogers. Rogers was wounded with a gunshot to the leg in a drive-by last Memorial Day. A victim of Chicago’s gun violence was in our town. Rogers’ presence made me realize how much of a reality it truly is.

Up until this July, the last murder in Geneva occurred in 1975, by serial rapist and murderer, Brian Dugan. Our most recent murder, which came as a surprise, happened about two blocks away from my home. Shadwick King murdered his wife for allegedly cheating on him. With two murders over the last thirty-nine years, Geneva is one of the most safe towns in Illinois. In 2014 so far, there has been 297 murders in the windy city. The other weekend, I was in Chicago on Saturday for a concert. While I was there, two people were shot and killed. In less than a day there were just as many murders in Chicago as there were in the last thirty-nine years in Geneva. Almost all of these murders go unheard of and we are only a forty-five minute train ride away.

People in Geneva should always be grateful they not do have to deal with these everyday horrors. Although we live a sheltered and safe life here, we live less than an hour away from the murder capital of America.