My mother just informed me that a close family friend, Vernon, and his daughter who I went to high school with, Christina, were shot and killed on the street last night in Aliso Viejo (the “upscale Southern California neighborhood” I grew up in). The killer, I’m told, was a 19 year old neighbor who killed himself in his back yard shortly thereafter. I’m absolutely shocked, and my thoughts are with Denise, Vernon’s wife, and their son.

I’m immediately reminded of the bullet-hole left in the ceiling, the one under which I used to sit during photo 2nd period; the one left when another kid shot himself in the head during class a couple of years prior. I’ll resist the temptation to rail on the sickness a place like Aliso Viejo breeds in children out of respect; I’m appalled, and deeply saddened by this.