of the first suburbs in St. Louis County. A usually peaceful community, known for a really nice Farmer’s Market, some great parks, Victorian houses, and now known for utter violence and chaos.

I got onto facebook last night and the posts from friends who live in Ferguson were sad and scary. Many had a sleepless night. Merely one or two or three blocks from West Florissant Ave., where the looters were doing their evil deeds, are many neighborhoods, inhabited by innocent citizens who could hear the looters, the gunshots being fired, and then the police sirens and the helicopters flying overheard, shining lights into their backyards. Florissant friends were on facebook offering to let friends in Ferguson, if they felt it was safe to even leave their homes, tocome and stay with them overnight. Friends in St. Charles County, where the Missouri River meets the mighty Mississippi, were offering their homes,too, as havens from the violence and danger.

With the dawn of Monday morning, the damaged buildings were like an open wound in the community; broken glass lying in the stores, and across their thresholds, goods ransacked and gone, the QT smoldering, even the WalMart that I used to shop at was looted, probably only an 8 minute drive from our first home in Florissant!

One Ferguson business wasn’t harmed as the owner and employees put up a human barricade.

The QT on the morning of Monday, Aug. 11th, Ferguson, MO

I feel very sad and disheartened by all of what has transpired these past 2 days. Someone posted on