Vicious Vandals

Last night, in the dark, sneaky vicious vandals broke windows on 10 cars in the parking lot. We live in a senior community. The people whose cars were trashed range from 60 to 88 years old. Our people have had strokes, hip replacements; lost friends, spouses in the last year. They want to live their remaining time in peace and safety.

One man, still weak from his last stroke, is cleaning up the glass, while his wife, who struggles heroically with rheumatoid arthritis, can only watch.

I try not to be vindictive; struggle to be nonjudgmental, decry revenge in all its vile forms.

I struggle not to hate.

But I want the thugs who committed this mass crime to learn what their reprehensible deeds have done. If they are young, I want their parents to know what's been perpetrated; what they have failed to teach their children.

Old people are sweeping and picking up, with weak hearts and fragile musculature. Old people will have to report this to insurance companies that will probably raise the premium on those policies. Old people on fixed incomes will have to pay a deductible. Old people will have to get their cars to the repair shops and wait for their only form of transportation to return.

Old people will now have more trouble sleeping, listening for felons in the night.

Old people are crying, fruitless rage weakening already frail bodies.

I hope you are found, sneaky vicious vandals. I hope one day you understand the fear and loss our people are feeling today.