Whether or not this particular piece is satire or is authentic, I don't know.
What I do know is a number of people (I used to work with a lot of them when I was in the army working in a civilian office) who think just like this and have the same level of intelligence and familiarity with current events as was exhibited here. The only thing I would say is that the paper's editor must have corrected all the spelling errors that would have been in the original letter.
As for believing Chicago is safe than almost anywhere, please tell me, if you don't live in the greater Chicago area or watch Fox News, when did you ever hear about the several murders every day in Chicago? You probably haven't. I live just a couple of hours south of Chicago and I never hear about the gun violence in Chicago on any local or network stations.