Sometimes I watch the news and hear about murders and it doesn't hit me. It's as if - yes, I comprehend the fact that someone has died but. . . It's too anonymous. I feel like we live in an age where we are bombarded by death - even violent death - by the media and now, perhaps, we're a little muted by it. Yeah, I watch CSI. I like crazy gory movies. When you hear about a murder on the 11 o'clock news, you digest it, watch the rest of the program and then go to bed. You don't mourn the person. At least I don't. And I don't think I'm alone in that.

Until last night.

I heard about the murder of Jane Pepper last night and again this morning. Apparently Jane lived in those Wellington apartments on 64th Street. She was stabbed to death.

See, if I lived anywhere else? I don't think I'd care. Well, okay, I mean, I'd sort of care.

But see? Broad Ripple? We're a community. And one of our neighbors was murdered. In our town. On our corner. She was stabbed to death. It's not a movie. It's not an episode of CSI. This actually, really happened to some nurse lady who had two cats and liked to garden outside her apartment in Broad Ripple.

I suppose what I mean is - bad things happen in every town, but never so close to mine. It's easy to feel removed from those bad things when they happen to anonymous people far away. But this feels entirely too close for comfort. I didn't know this woman personally or anything, but who knows? Maybe we passed by each other on our way to dinner. Maybe she drove behind me on College. Maybe anything. She was my neighbor - not next door, but neighbor nonetheless.

So I suppose now? I'll watch the news with a little more feeling. Because now I know that those anonymous people we hear about on the news are someone else's neighbors, too, with lives they're leaving behind.

Our community has officially been affected. How do you feel?