Just what kind of person would do such a thing?
We know that's what many readers were thinking Thursday morning when they looked over the front page of this newspaper and saw the story of vandalism at Texarkana's historic Rose Hill Cemetery.
The city has spent a year cleaning up the cemetery, making repairs, generally sprucing up. And they just installed new automatic gates that open and close when vehicles approach.
But just a day after announcing the installation of the new gates, somebody had to ruin it. The motion sensors were destroyed. It might take a while to have them fixed, depending on when parts can be obtained. Rose Hill Cemetery is one of the oldest in the Twin Cities, founded in 1874. Some of Texarkana's founders and earliest citizens are buried there. Soldiers from the Civil War onward spend their final rest there. Many of the 35 victims of the disastrous Paragon Saloon fire in 1882 are buried there together in a mass grave.
So what kind of person would do that?
We can't say. Maybe some kids up to no good. Maybe someone a bit older with nothing else to do. Someone unthinking, though. Someone who has no pride in their city.
Hopefully the culprit or culprits will be caught. And we can think of no more fitting punishment than a few months of hard work cleaning and maintaining Rose Hill Cemetery, leaving it better than it was when they pulled such a stupid stunt.
We wish the police luck in tracking down the vandal.
Maybe something good can come out of this.