Stop the Insanity

Last evening was like any other evening for me. I came home from work and flipped on the evening news. There was a report about a jewelry heist/shootout in my home town of Woburn. As I watched the details of the heist and shootout all I could think was “Wow and in Woburn of all places.” Then around 11 p.m. I put on the nightly news only to see yet another story about someone being stabbed at the Woburn Showcase Cinema’s. This time all I could think was…”really Woburn stop the Insanity”.   

Woburn…by my account (having grown up there) has always been a quiet city.  A great place to raise a family! A suburb filled with middle class families that form a close knit community. I know it is a city but to me it has always felt like a quiet little town. The thing we were most known for when I was growing up was our annual Halloween Parade. The events of the last 24 hours has shocked and dismayed our usually quiet city. It has left so many saying “what is going on there.” Many trace the criminal activity back to the day after Christmas when an officer was killed while stopping a robbery at Kohl’s in Woburn. 

The newscasts are now portraying Woburn as somewhat of a “stop off” for criminals. One newscaster actually was talking about how Woburn’s location has made it a hot bed of criminal activity. All I could think was “Really!”  That has to be the most absurd thing I have ever heard. Woburn hasn’t suddenly moved! It has had the same location for a couple hundred years!

Unfortunately these events have taken place in our city. People have been shot and newscasters, while I respect what they do, are only out for a story. In the mean time they a ruining the reputation of our city in the process. I have heard it already, just today I had someone say to me “geez Woburn is turning into a scary place huh.”  That made me sad on many levels. Woburn is by no means a scary place. My childhood here was amazing! The Halloween parade, the carnival…this community is so much more family oriented then is being shown right now in the media.  

Yes unfortunate events have taken place but we can’t and shouldn’t let them tarnish the reputation of our city. Bad things unfortunately can and do happen everywhere. It is human nature to want to localize it and say don’t hang out in that place but the reality is that there is no localizing life. You can’t pin crime on one city or town...it happens everywhere and unfortunately there is no rhyme or reason. There is a saying “you take the good with the bad” so keep your head up Woburn, we have weathered the bad so the good is yet to come.