I got grabbed by a young guy on a bicycle oneday when I was walking and it was like 5pm. He sneaked up behind me and put his hands up my shorts and rode off. I couldn't do anything because it happened so quickly. He planned it. Earlier he had rode past saying sexual things to me and I brushed it off. Then when nobody was around he grabbed me. Things happen all the time here in Australia, not just the USA. We have rapes and women go missing...even children go missing. The only thing which is safer here is the schools...we have never had any shootings in any of our history.
I never walk when it is dark or even when the sun is going down. There have been rapes when I walk and that's just a few blocks from me. It's a walking track and there are too many places and bushes for somebody to hide. I wish I had a treadmill at home, I have always wanted one as then I could do my cardio whenever I wanted.
I am sorry to read that Australia is in many ways not much different that the U.S., but it doesn't surprise me. People are people wherever you are. There is really no reason to think otherwise, unfortunately.
When I was a kid 6 years of age, I was shuffled off to live with my father in a small town in Michigan called Parma. Because my dad was trying to get his business going, he farmed me out with some townspeople, so I really wasn't living with him after all. A year later my dad disappeared after a big fight with his girlfriend. I then went to live with cousins on their dairy farm in neighboring Albion, MI. It was a simple and good life for me, a spoiled city kid, who by now had lived all over the world with a variety of relatives from both sides of my family.
For many years, I dreamed of returning to Albion with my wife and children to live. This never worked out, unfortunately. Margie, my wife and I could move there now except for her poor health, so I have to think that it just isn't meant to be. Maybe this is a good thing. I would be very disappointed if we went there and it was no different than living in the city. Years ago, little towns in America, like Albion were somewhat isolated from the ills and complications of the rest of the world. Communications being what they are today, this is no longer the case. Still, I would like to think a person could take a walk at anytime in Albion and be perfectly safe.
