VIOLENCE, DANGER NOT LIMITED TO URBAN AREAS

Seen Web engine Yahoo's latest television commercial? A balding,
middle-aged father walks into his teenage son's room. He steps over
clothing and shoes and sits down on the unmade bed next to his son.

"What up, fool," the father says. "Chillin' I see. I ain't tryin' to
get all up in yo piece or nuthin', but Moms wants you to square up
this joint."

Blinking and stunned, the son says, "You mean she wants me to clean my
room?"

Aside from being funny, the commercial reveals just how alike we
really are, despite what we may think. Many things people consider
urban -- from baggy pants to hip-hop to slang -- actually have
suburban and rural homes also.

So does violence.

There's this perception of Wichita as a dangerous place. Friends who
live here but hail from rural Kansas, for example, say their families
are scared for them.

But consider these recent incidents from outside Wichita:

The Butler County Sheriff's office issued arrest warrants for 13
Augusta males suspected of a vicious October 2003 attack on three men
near Southwest 140th and Tawakoni Road in rural Augusta. The group was
expecting a fight between students from area high schools. Instead,
they attacked the men on ATVs with baseball bats and other objects,
the sheriff's office said.

A knife-wielding Winfield man was arrested for assaulting an
officer.

Tuesday, in a Hays courtroom, a former Fort Hays State University
student charged with second-degree murder of another student agreed to
plead guilty to aggravated battery. He then testified against three
other former students charged in the case.

The nation recently mourned the fifth anniversary of the deadly
shooting at Columbine High School in suburban Littleton, Co., where a
teacher an 12 students died and more than 20 were wounded.

I don't think anyone could argue that the bulk of violent crime
doesn't occur in urban areas.

But we shouldn't think violent activities exist only in
cities.

There are boys in the hood as well as boys in the woods.

An Ohio State University study looking at rural crime rates over time
suggests that while rural areas have less crime than urban areas, they
also have more crime than they did in the past, and their crime
problems are serious.

"We are on the same train as city people, but we're in the caboose,"
said a northeast Ohio farmer quoted in the study.

Where suburban and rural areas trail urban areas in violent crime,
they hold their own in terms of drug abuse.

Urban areas have long been adult playgrounds for suburbanites who
couldn't find the vices they craved in their own neighborhoods. Rural
areas have been popular hiding places for marijuana and
methamphetamine production.

And as so many urban neighborhoods can attest, violence follows the
drugs.

That's what makes me concerned for rural and suburban
areas.

Outside Wichita, crime gets driven through a filter of incredulity.
There's often this sense of surprise that a bit of the real world
leached into that world.

We all know that's not true. Violence exists wherever people
exist.

To deal with it effectively, we have to move past denial.

The sooner we get that through our skulls, the better.

And that's 'foshizzle.'