No. 576 - IN THE INTEREST OF PUBLIC SAFETY

No. 576

Jim Davidson - NEWSPAPER COLUMN

IN THE INTEREST OF PUBLIC SAFETY

Several years ago, there was a popular country song that contained these words, "How many arms have held you, and hated to let you go. How many, how many I wonder, but I really don't want to know."
I don't know about you, but there are a lot of things I don't want to know, like the man you ask the time of day, and he tells you how the watch is made. Of course, this statement pertains to the volume of information, and the specific details that tend to wear us out. There is also the fact that most people had rather hear good or positive news, as opposed to more negative news that saturates our social fabric every single day.
What I want to share with you in this column may be perceived as the latter, but in my mind it's so important that I am willing to chance it. This past week I was talking with a lady who attends our church, and she told me her husband was really shaken up because he had been robbed at gunpoint while walking to his car in nearby Little Rock after getting off work. If you have been there, then you know the feeling. When I considered what this lady had told me, combined with a number of lawless incidents that have occurred here in our community in recent weeks, in the interest of public safety I felt the need to inform you and my other readers of the increasing dangers lurking in our society.
To my way of thinking, this is not negative news. It's just common sense, and we can either stick our heads in the sand or take steps to prevent it. The essence of what I wanted to pass along came from a friend in an e-mail regarding a serial killer in a southern city. I have made several phone calls attempting to validate this story but could not, so I don't know if it's true or false. I do know the point that this story makes is something we should all keep uppermost in our minds.
This story comes from a man who lives in Alexandria, Va., but often works in this southern city. He said it was 5:15 a.m. and he was on his way to work and stopped at a service station to get $10 worth of gas and a soft drink. He said he took two $5 bills and a $1 bill into the store which was just enough to pay for his stuff. He went on to say that as he was ready to pull away from the store, a man approached his truck from the back side (an unlit area) and walked up to his window and knocked.
This man said, "Since I am paranoid and 'always looking for a rapist or killer' I didn't open my window. I just asked what he wanted. He raised a $5 bill to my window and said, "You dropped this." Since I knew that I had gone into the store with a certain amount of money, I knew I didn't drop it. When I told him it wasn't mine, he began hitting the window and door, screaming at me to open my door and insisting that I had dropped the money. At that point, I just drove away as fast as I could.
In retrospect, this man realized that this person could have been the serial killer that has been terrorizing this community for the past several months. He adds a P.S. "Ladies, really DO share this with everyone you know. Even if this man wasn't a serial killer, he looked nice, he seemed polite, he was apparently doing an act of kindness, but HE WAS NOT A NICE PERSON!!" People in law enforcement will tell you this is old hat, something they have heard countless times, but there are many unsuspecting women out there who have not heard it and may have their guard down.
Personally, I hate living in a society where we are held hostage by the criminal element. But other than just warning people to be careful, I seem powerless to do anything about it. From my heart, I try to see the good in everyone, but there are people out there who are not good and we have to stay on guard and do our best to never place ourselves in a position where we have few or no options for our safety. Just be careful.
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(EDITOR'S NOTE: Jim Davidson is a motivational speaker and syndicated columnist. You may contact him at 2 Bentley Drive, Conway, Ark. 72034. To support literacy, buy his book, "Learning, Earning & Giving Back.")