Tuesday, December 18, 2012  Standing Up to Fear  Black-capped
Chickadee  I was born in 1951, and as far back as I can
remember, the news was scary. My first encounters with the words
“rape,” “murder,” and “torture” were in the Chicago Tribune.
Richard Speck murdered 8 student nurses in Chicago when I was 14
years old. This horror was the top story for weeks after the
murder, and was mentioned almost daily throughout the months up
to his trial and through his appeals.  And I knew the world was
even scarier than what made the news. My father was a Chicago
firefighter who brought home stories of death and violence not
seen in the news. My high school had a shooting in 1967—a boy
killed his ex-girlfriend and wounded some teachers—but that
didn’t make the news. My brother dealt with day-to-day terrors
in Vietnam but none of his experiences made the news except as
reflected in casualty numbers. One of my elementary school
friends, Jimmy Califf, died there, but his death didn’t make the
news—his is just one of the 5