Things are so different here. We are at least an hour from Cincinnati, Dayton and Columbus. We sit near the corners of Indiana, Kentucky and obviously Ohio. Our news comes from Cincinnati, which covers all part of all three states. Even though we are a ways away, the news reported is incredibly different than what we saw in KC.
There weren't a lot of drug stories in the KC news. It isn't that there aren't drugs in KC, there are. For a while when we first moved to KC, there was a lot of reporting on meth houses exploding. Even that had become minimal the past few years. Usually the only drug stories on the news were that of huge drug busts or stings and again, were minimal.
Here, there are stories almost daily about drugs and primarily heroine. Heroine is an epidemic here, both in the city and rural areas. It is so bad that emergency workers carry drugs to counteract overdoses. I'm not kidding, it's crazy. The latest news story was of two young people who died of overdose and how they are retraining EMS workers to use the overdose drugs. They want enough of the drug administered to save them, but not make them conscious. Evidently when they become conscious, they refuse medical treatment and avoid intervention or charges. The fact that I know so much about this epidemic tells you how much it is in the news.
In the KC news, you might see a violent or deadly accident in the news a couple times a month. Here, there at least a few reported per week. It seems to be an even mix of interstate and state highway roads. The interstate crashes seem to be very traumatic with cars catching fire or semis being involved. State highway crashes also violent, but appear to be cross-over or running stop signs. By the way, we've seen a problem with both. Don't even get me started on careless driving here. It is rare for me to drive the five miles into town without seeing a car cross over the center line.
Probably the biggest difference is the individual violence we see reported. In KC, we saw a lot of reports about gun violence. In the past five years, there have been record numbers of gunshot fatalities and very specifically young black males. Between KCK and KCMO, that is their epidemic. I don't know what the rate is of solving those crimes, but reports are low. Our suburb of KC definitely wasn't like that. I think in 16 years, there were only a handful of murders and they were usually domestic.
We lived here for a good two months before we heard of gun violence on the news. Still, it's not a super common thing on the news here. Keep in mind, I only have year to go on and nothing to compare it to. The violence and crime stories around here seem to much different.
Last spring and summer, pit bull attacks saturated the news. Between all three of the big cities around us, there were at least a dozen deaths from attacks and most were children. One of them survived, without a tongue, ear and completely disfigured.
There is a lot of violence reported against children around here. We've seen probably a dozen or more stories of children/babies being killed by adults. The past two weeks have been especially tough. The first one was a baby in Indiana who's grandmother decapitated her with an electric saw. Not as much coverage on this cause it wasn't technically local. However, this week was local. A mother, who had lost custody of her 3 month old, stabbed and decapitated her daughter.
These stories resonate with me in a special kind of way. My first thought always when I hear these stories is "I would have taken them." Gosh. If people can't stand to be around their children, there are sources to give them away or get help. I'm positive that there are thousands of people who have the same response when they see these stories.
It isn't all bad though. In my time in KC, I never really saw the city as a whole rally around anyone. Unless it was a professional athlete, there wasn't a lot of individualism during crisis. The city as a whole did an excellent job of supporting charities, but the smaller communities were the only ones we ever saw rally around those in need.
We've seen two examples of how different this place is. The city and surrounding areas have rallied around two young people with cancer. They have been on every news station and even national programs. Both are young girls. One is a 19 year-old dying of brain cancer. Once receiving her terminal diagnosis, she started a foundation and has raised over $1 million. The other is the very young daughter of a football player here. Her dad and the Bengals have raised millions for the local children's hospital. Both are sweet and sad stories, that the community has made their own. I'm amazed at the love I've seen for these two girls. On the news this week, we saw one in her last days or weeks and the other who appears to be in remission. I've never seen this kind of community support for individuals.
I'm sure there are equal amounts of bizarre news reported in both places and news that is unique to the area. Oddly enough, the formats for stations here and there are the same with the same music and intros.
It's definitely different living in a place not really newsworthy or covered. When we lived in KC, our suburb was always in the news because half the news crew lived there. I've not seen our little town mentioned on the news once since we've lived here, not even for weather. It's SO different here!
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