Letter from the Editor

By Kristen Meriwether

The word of the week is COMMUNITY.

With all the craziness in the world right now, I’ve really marveled at how close knit this community is. Not just Lockhart, but Caldwell County as a whole.

When I got here, I kind of passed it off as that sweet Southern charm I’d just been away from for so many years. But then I drove up 35 and realized the Southern geography isn’t it…

There is something here, in Caldwell County…a bond that transcends the cliché “small-town charm” you read about in Southern Living. And it’s puzzled me because it doesn’t make sense.

We are a community split by “new guard” and “old guard.” We have cowboys and city folk, farmers and hipsters. We each believe we go to the “best” BBQ joint in town. Some of us are Longhorn fans. Some of you are Aggies. And the dreaded “Democrat vs Republican” divide is just as strong here as it is anywhere. According to the news and social media, we should all hate each other.

But we don’t. We live in harmony. We help each other out. Regardless of who you root or vote for.

This week I got to see that front and center in not one, but two great stories. The first I plucked out of a local Facebook group. I watched a gentleman, who doesn’t technically even live within Caldwell County, but works here, get so fed up with dumping in Plum Creek that he took it upon himself to clean it up.

The reactions in the Facebook group were amazing. People thanked him. Some donated money. Others worked with him to reuse some of the rubbish to keep it out of the landfill. No one asked him who he voted for. No one cared.

The other was a reporters dream, hand-delivered right into the newsroom. A gentleman came in and wanted to take out an ad to thank someone who found a large sum of cash and returned it.

It was such a great story I decided to do an article instead. I had the pleasure of interviewing both men. The gentlemen who found the money didn’t return it because the guy who lost it had the “right” political, football, or BBQ affiliation. He did it because it was the right thing to do.

My favorite was watching everyone in the county dance around in the snow on Sunday. I asked people to post on Facebook and had over 300 comments of their kids, livestock, and pets getting that “seeing snow for the first time” look. 

Republicans, Democrats, Aggies, Longhorns, old, and young…everyone reveled in the joy that is that rare Texas snow. For that one afternoon we all forgot about our tribes and remembered the one we all belong to—human.  

I don’t know what’s in the water here. But I’m drinking 64 oz a day hoping to catch it. Not because I want what you have. But because I want to contribute to it.

~K

Kristen Meriwether can be reached at editor@post-register.com.