Violence is not something to which we should grow accustomed. This summer has been violent around the world: in Europe, in America, in Baltimore, and in our neighborhood of Roland Park. Every day brings news of more loss of life.A Roland Parker was murdered on July 8. Molly Macauley was stabbed in the neck while walking her dogs on a Friday evening. A simple daily routine turned fatal. She lay bleeding on the sidewalk in the 600 block of University Parkway. A neighbor responded and ran to others for help. Molly Macauley died of her wounds. The carnage plays over and over again in the minds of survivors.This is the first such fatal attack on a resident of our neighborhood. Other homicides have occurred. One on St. John's in 1998 was drug-related, but the victim was not a resident. Another began across town some years ago; the person died on Cold Spring Lane behind our house one summer night.Other acts of violence have occurred in the neighborhood: rape, abduction, armed robbery, home invasions and domestic violence. We have lost neighbors to fire, sudden illness, suicide and accident.As one neighbor emailed the morning after Macauley was killed: Violence has come home. The horror experienced elsewhere regularly is not an everyday occurrence in Roland Park.While the people of France, Turkey, Texas, Louisiana and Florida reel from the savagery of recent weeks, tourists wonder if they will be the next to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. In Roland Park we are trying to process a random, Friday night attack. The police turned out in droves to canvass the neighborhood on July 11. They report, as of this writing, that a task force has been set up to comb through all leads. Let's hope something turns up.At the July 6 meeting of the Roland Park Civic League, Northern District Police reported that two armed robberies, each with a knife, occurred in the previous month on Roland Avenue, in the 5100 and 3900 blocks. They reminded us again to call 911 immediately if we see someone suspicious. Were these attacks related to the murder of Molly Macauley? Were the attacks drug related or gang related? Were they because of mental illness?Now Molly Macauley's family, friends and colleagues grieve as they prepare for a celebration of the outstanding life this dedicated environmental economist led. A Christian Science celebration of life will take place Saturday, July 23 at 11 a.m. at Second Presbyterian Church in Guilford, where services were held nine years ago for two children who died in a Roland Park fire. Undoubtedly, many Roland Parkers, including those who did not know Macauley, will attend.Roland Park feels like a village, a big village of 1,100 households. That number does not include individual apartments and condominiums or surrounding houses in the Greater Roland Park area. Although we have more residents than some small towns, we are closely knit. Our lives intersect in multiple ways: through the many private and public schools in the neighborhood, religious organizations, nonprofits and businesses. We have a "main street" with a library, an adjacent post office, individually owned restaurants and stores. We have walkable streets where we often see each other.Although we may not have personally known Molly Macauley, many had seen her. My neighbor saw her on morning jogs when he was walking his dog. Others saw her walking her beloved dogs.Now many are reluctant to do something we've always considered one of summer's pleasures: walk to neighborhood restaurants for dinner. Doing so means that we would walk home after dark. If two big dogs cannot save a 59-year-old neighbor, how could we survive a similar attack, even if we were walking with someone else? We still frequent neighborhood eateries, but many drive.My niece was in France the week of the carnage in Nice. She was in Paris that day, Bastille Day, a day I had suspected something might happen somewhere in France. I did not say anything to her about not going to her colleague's wedding, just as I have not said anything to my nephew about going to Brussels this week.I do not want to give in to violence and hole up at home. Doing so would hand the victory to terrorists and madmen. I wonder, however, if Americans could unite to take a stand against assault rifles and do something about drugs. Would legalizing some drugs and turning their use into a medical issue, as former Mayor Schmoke suggested decades ago, help to reduce the violent loss of innocent lives? Or are the vested, economic interests in drugs so powerful that drugs will continue to proliferate and end more and more lives?As we mourn the life of Molly Macauley, may we push harder for constructive changes and for peace, so that we do not accept brutal violence as a way of life.