It's predictable. Whenever there is a media feeding frenzy over the latest child murder someone interviews a neighbor who makes a comment like this one (clipped from a news release about the arrest of a suspect in the murder of Sandra Cantu:
"Neighbor Barbara Sokoloski, whose home is behind Sandra's, described Sandra on Saturday as 'a friendly sweet little girl who always went around trying to find somebody to play with.'
'It's too bad that kids these days can't go out and play like we did when I was a little girl,' said Sokoloski, 69."
Wait a minute. I'm in my 60s too, and while it is true that parents were less reluctant to let their kids "go out and play" when I was a kid, I question whether this was because there was less of a perceived threat than an actual one. If a child was abducted and murdered it would certainly have made headlines all over the region. It would have been news on local television channels. It's doubtful that someone in New York would have heard about a child abduction/murder in California.
Today, on the other hand, people from coast to coast are constantly bombarded with details of the Sandra Cantu case on all two dozen cable channels that feature news, on the internet, on cell phones that display news updates, radio, and, for those that still read them, newpapers.
Then consider that the population of this country has almost doubled since I was a child. The rate of abduction/murders could stay exactly the same, but the numbers would be higher.
I have two points. The first is perhaps our parents weren't cautious enough. Yes, Beaver Cleaver's parents let him walk home alone after dark. They didn't have seat belts on their family car either. Ward smoked a pipe when his kids were in the same room, and I doubt that Beaver ever wore sunscreen.
The second is, worrying changes absolutely nothing. Just like in the "good old days" a parent can only take reasonable precautions and let their children have as much room as possible to learn and to grow.
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