A Room of Light

Have you had the opportunity to enter a room filled with like-minded individuals as yourself? The feeling is welcoming and warming and you feel as if you belong. When the intention is for the good of all, the feeling can be felt as being surrounded with light, making you feel you are treading the right path.

We had such a thing happen to us this past week. We attended a citizens meeting against crime in our small town. This meeting was a working meeting, unlike the bigger one I reported on last week (see "ODDITIES"). It was a small group. Only fifteen folks. But as each one spoke from the heart, there was nodding and agreement going around the table and we could see that we were all, more or less, on the same page.

There was a guest speaker from the Pinal County Sheriff's Office on crime prevention. He told us that the hardened criminal uses three things to his advantage: Motive, Ability and Opportunity. While Motive and Ability is nothing the Average Joe can do anything about in deterring crime, Opportunity is. So he supplied ways we can take away the opportunity for crime to occur and save ourselves the problem of being a victim. He wasn't trying to make us feel paranoid, just a bit extra vigilant so complacency (or laziness) doesn't result in a criminal getting the upper hand.

Agreement resounded on these points: That we are dedicated to seeing the "Same-Old, Same-Old" system of crime and punishment this town has used in the past go by the way side. That we all feel overwhelmingly that this town is worth saving and we're going to see it get cleaned up. That the days of hiding criminals behind familial ties is over. People are going to step up and do their duty: report crimes and suspicious activities; agree to be witnesses in court cases, if need be; look out for their neighbors and their neighborhoods; and refuse to be victims. The resounding affirmation was that no longer would people be afraid of reprisals by the 'bad guys'.

It's a big job. We have a lot of work to do. But we're going to start with small steps with our dedicated group of fifteen and we hope to recruit more as the tide turns and things change. We have the backing of the mayor and the town council and the chief of police and his staff. We're not some vigilante group charging out on a white horse to save the town. We're going to start turning over the rocks and cleaning up the decades of debris piece by piece. There are lots of things we could be doing if our numbers swell, but some important ones to get started with. Talk is of forming Citizens on Patrol groups that will go through neighborhoods to aid the police during periods of time when crime occurs and the police cannot be everywhere at once. We're going to do some publicity to get the word out to the general populace that our group exists. We plan to start a youth group to get the word out to young people.

Light will shine into the Dark and Light will rule the day. It won't be easy. But those of us in that room this week realized that something special is happening in Superior and things are going to change. I'm very grateful to be a part of this.