One of us
by Jon Worley

New Freedom, Pa., has seen its share of controversy and acrimony. In recent years, family after family has moved up from the Baltimore suburbs, increasing strain on roads, sewer systems and public services. Like many other small towns along this stretch of the Maryland border, the "original" residents of New Freedom are concerned that their way of life will be destroyed by these new interlopers. Some communities are even severely restricting development in order to "preserve" a "small town" way of life.

Two weeks ago, someone attacked 13-year-old Gregory Witman in the foyer of his house. Witman repeatedly tried to escape, but eventually he died in the laundry room after sustaining 64 stab wounds to the neck and head, virtually decapitating him. In New Freedom. Make that new New Freedom, as the Witman family lives in one of the recently-built subdivisions on the edge of town. You might think that some of the "old-timers" might be secretly happy, glad that the interlopers got what they deserved.

But then, you'd be wrong. The reason people move to small towns like New Freedom is the sense of community. Of shared joy and pain. After the murder of Gregory Witman, the town pulled together. Anyone who could help the police did. What was left of the Witman family (including 15-year-old Zachary, who discovered the body and reported the crime to the police) retreated to Maryland. But the outpouring of grief and sympathy expressed in New Freedom was genuine.

Alright, the memorial service was something of a weird Heathers scene, with boys in football jerseys and girls in miniskirts. But, hey, I'm really not out to criticize the fashion sense of young teenagers. The fact remains that the whole town turned out. People put flowers on street signs, in store windows, just about everywhere. Every sign in town offered sympathy to the Witmans. Like I said, the grief was genuine.

As was the fear. From the start, the rumor mill focused on Zachary. One story had him on drugs. Another said it was jealousy over a girl. There were a million others scenarios advanced by folks all throughout York County. Everyone seemed to think Zachary had something to do with the crime, as grisly as it was. Whoever did it must have had some kind of long-term grudge, something that required 64 stab wounds to heal.

The police found a knife and a pair of bloody lacrosse gloves buried in the Witmans' back yard. Zachary plays lacrosse. The police then ran some tests. They got the results. Saturday, after an arrest warrant was issued, Zachary Witman turned himself in. He was charged with criminal homicide. The District Attorney will decide later what the specific charges will be. In any case, Witman will stand trial as an adult. And yes, he could get the death penalty.

To hear the people of the town talk, they knew it all along. But even so, they were still sad. Upset that this sort of thing could happen. Some blamed drugs, even though a thorough search of the Witman house turned up nothing along those lines. A couple of the quotes I saw made reference to the "outsider" status that such "new" arrivals carry. But for the most part, the people of New Freedom stayed in character. It is a small town, and when the going gets rough, small towns stick together and the citizens rally around each other. That's why people move there. That's why southern York County is the destination of choice for more than a thousand ex-Baltimoreans each year. Towns like New Freedom provide a sense of community, a sense of belonging.

Now, I've always found the same to be true of cities. I've written passionately about the advantages of cities as I see them. I've often expressed my view that white flight is one of the worst sorts of prejudice and paranoia exhibited in American society. And I could cynically say that the Witmans got what they deserved.

But that would be cruel. And that would be wrong. No family deserves to have one son kill another. No family deserves to have all of its children wiped out in an instant (even if Zachary doesn't get the death penalty, he will most likely never get out of jail). Oh, I know, I've not supposed to pre-judge Zachary Witman. But the evidence is overwhelming. It only makes sense that he did it.

And the citizens of New Freedom, new and old, breathe a little easier today. They didn't want to believe that someone would come into town and just take one of their children so brutally. They wanted to believe that they were immune to all the evils of society, that their enclave was sheltered enough to keep all the bad people out.

But, of course, they know better now. Evil is not "out there" somewhere, something that manifests itself in others. Evil comes from within each and every one of us. When we recognize that all we're doing when we flee "the horror" (be it cities, or strange people or whatever) is simply running away from ourselves, then we will prove our maturity and be able to face our own problems, realizing that we have only ourselves to fear.

Jon Worley noticed that the Gregory Witman murder managed to knock the President off the front pages of the two York newspapers for a couple days last week.

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