When you think of Highland Park, what first comes to your mind? Ravinia? Lake Michigan? John Hughes movies? High-priced homes on Sheridan Road? Whatever it is, they’ve now moved down the list a spot or two.

Highland Park, Illinois is now the latest town to have a mass shooting.

My family lived in Highland Park for two decades. My siblings and I are all graduates of Highland Park High School. While I wouldn’t call it a sleepy little town, it certainly is closer to a Mayberry existence than Chicago-esque. It was among the last places I figured that an event like today’s shootings would occur.

Maybe I was naive. I was definitely naive. I’m not anymore. As I write this, six are dead and more than twenty have been injured. If this can happen in Highland Park, at a parade, on the 4th of July, it can happen anywhere. It will happen anywhere.

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