Sutherland Springs, Texas

This place has a zip code and a post office but it is not actually incorporated. No government reigns here, but it is part of Wilson County, among the poorest per capita in Texas. There are probably more cows than people, possibly more guns than cows. The trope: evil descended upon this place, heroes with their rifles handy took it out. Austin's public radio station is intermittent; Bible preaching and right-wing radio are constant. Like much of south Texas, the Mexican influence is omnipresent but sublimated. At the H-E-B in Floresville, a country singer croons over his drinking problem with mud-black guajillo peppers for sale. A local steakhouse is decorated with high school cheerleading uniforms from the Grease era encased in glass frames over more recent portraits of softball teams. The steaks and baked potatoes are Texas size: Texas, the land of superlatives. It is actually that big.

Twenty-five people died here Sunday, 26 including the shooter, an Air Force vet with a history of cruelty to animals, whose grades slipped from Bs to Ds in high school as his disciplinary record widened, 27 including the four-month-old fetus that under Texas criminal code can be considered a homicide victim. The children of its would-be mother decided that, boy or girl, it would be called Billy Bob Wigglebottom -- a name they found hilarious.

The would-be father and his two remaining step-kids (the mother and the three others lost to the massacre) appeared at the high school library to meet the vice president and his wife, the attorney general and his wife, the Texas governor and his wife, the senator, the congressmen, in a creaseless red button down and jeans. After embracing neighbors, he complained about "fake news" which reported shrapnel wounds down his back. Our information is only as good as the information given.

The florist in her 70s with the faint black mustache worked as an EMT for 30 years in this county -- saw bad car wrecks, farm accidents. Nothing like this. Business is good. The long-haul trucker and his wife who works in payroll took a week off to help with whatever, keep the volunteer association community center, rented out for weddings, parties and funeral receptions, open for firefighters to cook in, first responders to sleep in, victims' families to find a little peace.

The media was everywhere, picking on the remnants of this bloody story. Everyone, on all sides, failing to recognize each other's humanity, looking for someone or something to blame, coming up without an answer.