Fall Break in Uvalde

Recently, my wife and I drove down to Uvalde, TX to pay our respects, meet some new friends and help with basketball athletics class at Uvalde High School.

Uvalde is the site of one of the worst mass shootings in history. It is where 19 4th graders and 2 teachers were murdered and others were severely injured.

It was an unusual place to be.

It's been just 5 short months since this horrific thing occurred, but it has been on my mind since. It touched my heart in ways other shootings haven't. I don't know why, but it has.

It was unusual because of this bad thing happening, yet the cruel reality of life is that it goes on. There were people at restaurants, in the grocery store, laughing and going to school. It is a cruel reality, but it is also just reality. 

Now, for the families and friends and most everyone in the community, life goes on, but they have had their lives given new, alternative paths they didn't expect to have. Their anger and desire for something to be done can absolutely be understood.

It's a horrible situation.

You have victims that were mourned. 

You have angry, sad people involved who want to know how this could happen to their children, nieces, nephews, grandchildren, brothers, and sisters.

You have law enforcement that is still there, but are taking huge criticisms, most of it warranted, and some of it makes them a sounding board. Many were following orders, I cannot see myself standing outside those rooms and not entering, but they were following orders. And I am sure many of them are not doing well mentally because of this and the criticism they are receiving.

You have school administration and who have had this "thing" thrust upon them. They didn't want this to happen and are having to deal with legalities of the situation that makes info coming out or firings move too slow for the people that are understandably angry.

And you have the shooter's family. 

Yes, they are victims too. Their relative was a sick, deranged individual who attacked his family and then did this heinous thing.

And they are still there, living in the community.

Some family members of the shooter, in shock I would guess, have made unusual statements to the media only pouring gasoline on a raging fire.

There has been protesting, verbal anger hurled at people who are trying to do their best, there has been firings and resignations, there has been so much hurt brought on by this...this evil that it hasn't stopped long after it happened in May, and I don't see it ending any time soon because of the nature of this evil.

And then there are those who are pushing along, doing the best they can in a horrible situation, trying to bring "normalcy" back to a place that will never be normal again.

Two of these people are the boys' basketball coach Ramon Burato and his wife Rosie. I helped Coach with basketball during the school day and my wife and I went out to eat one night with him and his wife.

What I found was two amazing people from Uvalde, who love people, and are the right people for the right time in this right place for them.

Coach does an amazing job in coaching his team. He loves his kids, he works hard and realizes that there is more to basketball than winning and losing and it couldn't be more true for him than ever before.

He is from and coaches at a town/school that has a high rate in many bad things in normal times and there are gangs in the community, so you know that element carries over into the school day and affects his players.

And he has players on his team who lost siblings on that day in May.

It's a community not unlike any around here in Southern Indiana, drug usage, drug dealing, overdose, gang activity, fights, suicide, and divorce. One that has had trauma, but now more piled on, a type that not many communities have had to deal with.

I feel for the families that lost children and loved ones that day, I am sick to my stomach and search for answers when I think about it.

But some may read this and wonder why I bring up caring about the law enforcement and the shooter's family. Because, they have been victimized in different ways, ways that will get very little empathy from the masses.

But I understand the anger, and I just try to put smiles on peoples faces when I am in those situations because it is messed up, really messed up right now. And we should love on people in need especially this drastic need. 

But, if something like this happened to my children, it would probably have to be someone else other than me to show sympathy for those that I would blame.

And that's why we need each other on this planet and in our communities, and I know it's a cliché, but we need Jesus.

Only then, will the pain be gone.

Until then, we must show Jesus life and love examples and help those who need it, to be convicted to reach out, and to put a hand on a shoulder, to listen, pick up a phone to call or text support.

Life is hard, I think too often we make it harder than we should, but if it is hard for you, it is hard for someone else and by reaching out and helping others, it is amazing what lessons and fulfillment you get for yourself.