FROM THE MAYOR'S DESK

What makes people do the unthinkable? I recently read a newspaper story about a mother who purposely drove her vehicle off a 25-ft. cliff and into the Mississippi River, killing herself, five-year-old twin boys and another eight-year-old son. This didn't happen in some far off place; it happened right here in Iowa.
It seems these types of things happen every now and then, and certainly provide a reality check to those of us who live in our own secluded little worlds thinking that life is all good. There are clearly a great number of people in the world who have some serious problems. The sad part is, so many times, children are pulled into these ugly situations and end up injured or dead because of things they had nothing to do with.
And it never seems to end.
Many of you will remember Susan Smith, the mother who went on national television pleading for her children's safe return, when eventually she was found to have placed them in her vehicle just before she sent it to the bottom of a pond. Or there's the story of young Kenny Kramer from Brownsville, MN, whom I have written about before, tied to a tree and suffocated by his own father. And now this story today, and it seems to go on and on and on.
I read the above-mentioned story about the mother and her kids, and I honestly could not believe it. I read it, saw the pictures of the truck, but still somehow couldn't let myself believe that it could really happen. The story told of how people could hear the children screaming as the truck neared the drop off. I think of my own children, and my mind won't let me think of that scene any longer. It's just too painful.
This same kind of thing happens when there is a suicide. This community has had a high number of them in recent memory, and every one has made us ask "why"?
I lost a cousin to such an event just over a year ago, and to this day, my mind won't let it be real. He drove one of the first "new" Dodge trucks in this area, and for just a flash of a second, in my mind, every Dodge truck I meet on the highway is still him. But then I quickly realize that I'm wrong, and am left with that same old empty feeling.
Life's mysteries. Many times they are the questions that never get answered. "Why would this person do that?" or "What could they have been thinking?" Sometimes you can sit and think for days, and in the end, all that's left are more questions.
Do you suppose that when we get to Heaven, all of these answers are there waiting for us? Hopefully so.