Thread by @Johngcole

The population of Sutherland Springs, TX, is around 350, the same as the town I lived in. 25 dead will forever alter the community.

In a town like that, everyone knows everybody.

My next door neighbor growing up was the elderly mother of my 2nd grade teacher who was married to one of the two brothers who ran the

general store. The third brother was the postmaster. Her grandson was a few years older than me and runs the general store now.

They were good friends with my dad, who was the mayor for 20+ years, and if anything happened to my parents, in the will, I was to be

adopted by my second grade teacher and her husband, along with my siblings. Their sons (one runs the general store now) would have been

my brothers. My teacher is a prominent member of the church and the women’s club, both of whom I donate money to.

Harry, the store owner, is best friends with Paul, and I was best friend’s with Paul’s younger brother Carl. Paul married Wendy, whose dad

taught sixth grade science. And on and on and on and on. It’s not “inbreeding” as some like to joke, but these small communities are so

intertwined that when this many people are killed, the town will not recover for generations. To give you an idea of the extent of the

damage, a comparable death toll to what happened to this town is if 560,000 people died on 9/11 in NYC.

Think on that.

but heaven forbid we do anything about guns.

It’s the kind of place where you legit don’t lock your door. Hell, I’ve left my wallet in my car with the car door unlocked for two days

all of my neighbors have keys to my house because well I have known them for 47 years