I Grieve For Our Nation

Another mass shooting.  This time in Texas, not far from where I live.

The city I live in is a small one.  It is referred to as the Crossroads area.

We are surrounded by ranch land, oil wells and some of the most 

charming small towns found anywhere in our country.  We are one

hundred miles away from each of these three cities, Houston, Austin,

and San Antonio.  It is always a pleasure to take a drive from our

home to any one of these three major cities because the scenery is

often so bucolic.  In the spring, you see miles and miles of 

Bluebonnets and the Indian Paint wildflower in the fields where

Longhorn and a huge variety of other types of cattle graze.

It's a sight to see, and I treasure these views.

You will also find some of the prettiest old courthouses anywhere.

Tiny little towns, with small populations and it's as though

each one competed to have the loveliest courthouse. 

There is a wonderful variety of small and independent restaurants.  

Places that seem to turn back the clock and give the diners a sense

of home cooking how it used to be.

Miles and miles of country roads that are usually very quiet, except for the days

during the Round Top Antique Week.

One does not expect a tragedy of such proportion as we learned of

yesterday in Sutherland Springs.  A very small town on the way to San

Antonio on Route 87.  A highway that we have traveled on so very

many times.  Such a small little place where everyone knows one

each other.  The kind of place that we all dream about, where life

is so peaceful and idyllic.  The residents of this small town will 

be forever heartbroken becasue of the tragic events of yesterday.

For years now, since that fateful day of September, 11, 2001, we 

have assumed our foes lived outside this nation.  Now we are

learning that the foes are right here, fellow citizens living among us.

I spent three years living and working in a foreign country.  It

was very exciting and I would not trade my experience for 

anything.  When my time there was completed and I returned

home, I was so happy and proud to come home to the land

I have always loved so much.  I never imagined that life here

would become so violent, so troubled.  I am so very saddened

by the hatred and violence.  Why are we turning against one

another?  Why have the lives of so many innocents been lost?

Why is there such discontent in a land where we have so much?

I think of all those who have risked their lives to have the

opportunities this great nation provides, yet there are some who

just don't appreciate what we have and want to destroy

everything for themselves and others.  It breaks my heart.

Susan and Bentley