I live in a rural area, in the Sierra Nevada foothills of California. I'm near a major highway, so I guess I could expect a sheriff's deputy or an ambulance to arrive in 45 minutes if I called. My friend Debby lives 20 to 30 minutes up the hill, but I still call her a neighbor. I'd bet she'd wait an hour and 15 minutes for a deputy or an ambulance.

That's the price you pay for living in the country - but then, crime doesn't happen here very often. Who'd dream that such a terrible crime would happen at a summer camp on an island? We certainly had no thought of that at the rural Wisconsin camps where I worked during college - and we never, ever saw police officers. If a kid had to go to the hospital, we took him - it took too long to wait for an ambulance. That's the reality of not living in the city.

-Joe-