EDITOR,

Tracy has been in the world’s news too often of late. Terrible things have happened — a teen held hostage, a police officer shot to death, a little girl abducted and murdered. This has left some in our community wondering, “What did Tracy do to deserve this? Why did it happen here?”

I am not cosmic enough to answer those questions, but I’d like to suggest an alternate view: If those terrible things were going to happen somewhere, I’m glad they happened in Tracy. Think about what really matters: How many other communities would have responded to each of those incidents as we did? 

Emergency workers buying a video game and pizza for the freed teenager? A community that treated the death of an Oakland police officer like that of a hometown hero, which he was. And how many cities would have organized itself so fully — first to find a missing child and then to share a family’s indescribable grief?

Tracy is the smallest town of 81,000 in America. I believe that small-town spirit gave us the strength to respond to profound evil with equally profound compassion. Three separate times. 

When we were called to help, the people of Tracy and its neighbors answered without question or delay. We are the heart and soul of a community that cannot be defeated by sorrow and are tough enough for whatever tomorrow brings.