I'm mad...

Let's start by saying that I live in a nice, middle-class house in an established middle-class neighborhood. It's full of retirees walking 'the loop' and kids riding bikes. The homes are well taken care of and we have an active homeowners association. I felt safe at home.

Thursday afternoon the Polk County Sheriff's office busted a grow house three doors down from my home. Three doors. Two houses in between. Our addresses are eerily similar. That's WAY too close for comfort.

My children, and all their friends, ride their bikes in our neighborhood. They walk from one house to the other. We sit on the front porch. We wash cars in the front yard and park in the driveway.

I know my neighbors. At Christmas time we have a cookie exchange. We wave and say hello when we pass on the street. We trade car pool duty and borrow eggs from each other. We live the American dream. But I'm not unreasonable. I have an alarm on my car and I lock my doors at night.

How can it be that my neighbor's are drug dealers? How dare they shatter my illusion of safety by growing marijuana three doors down from my house? A few weeks ago, at 9 am on a Saturday morning, drug dealers started shooting at each other in a neighborhood not too far from here. Saturday morning isn't for drug wars. It's for sleeping late, watching cartoons and making pancakes.

Can my children still play safely outside? What changes do I need to make to protect them? They think they are safe. Until a few days ago, I thought that we had made choices that kept them safe. We live on a cul-de-sac with nice houses with large yards. How was I to know that the same things that attracted me to this neighborhood would also attract drug dealers?

Part of me is still in denial. Things like this happen in seedy neighborhoods with run down houses full of litter and junky cars. Neighborhoods where young men with lots of jewelry hang out on the street corner.

How badly could this situation have turned out? How can I trust the next people that move into the subdivision?

Have you talked to your neighbors? Do they seem like nice people? What do they grow in their garden? Do they garden indoors or outdoors? For me, this is too close for comfort. As much as I want to, I can't board up my widows and hide from the unpleasantness in this world. But I can pray hard. Pray for my family. Pray for the drug dealers. Pray for the addicts. Pray for the law enforcement officers that work hard to keep this from happening in other neighborhoods. The Bible tells us to be in this world but not of this world. This is part of the world that I definitely want no part of.