Uh, I wasn't ex-, uh, planning on sharing this until this afternoon, I believe, uh, with the event that we just heard about, it probably is just as well. Uh- I, I, I will tell you something personally, that I called and spoke to a, a counsel at the, uh, Subcommittee on Crime, House Subcommittee on Crime- Told him to be watching Waco, tell Congress to watch Waco, on April 19th. Uh, we could halfway expect a provocateur type of situation, and so, uh- I just trust that all of our people, work within the law. I know I do. And I want to share something with you that's on my heart. And the good Lord has opened the door. And a, uh, a, uh, a shorter version of this, but not much shorter, is in today's, Waco Tribune-Herald. Uh- John Young was kind enough to give me a guest column. After, uh, Dave Hall, uh, encouraged me to do this, and I want to tell you- when I got up last year, to sing- I said two things, I said I'm here for two reasons. I'm here because the Lord loves justice- and I'm here because I'm a mother. Now after another year, of talking to Christians, a lot of people who say that Christians- and that the Branch Davidians deserved what they got- I'm here for another reason. Because I love this country. Not just our freedoms, but I love its soul. And I want to talk to you- especially those of you who aren't here, who are on the other side of that camera, about bluebonnet time in Texas. And it is bluebonnet time in Texas, and they are beautiful- aren't they? Suddenly, they're just everywhere! They have sprung forth unbidden by any of Adam's race... heeding a call that they alone, can hear.

In cities, the bluebonnets can be found in masses in flower beds and singly poking little blue and white heads
through pavement cracks. Vacant lots and traffic medians offer them canvas on which to express their beauty
whether in small clumps and bunches or as ground covering. Yes, they make themselves known in the cities
but, in the country...oh...in the country...that's where the bluebonnets have the unbounded room to expand,
to express life and to show just how majestic a small thing can become.

In the country, they line highways like uneven strips of fragrant blue ribbon. They dot pastures in anything
from small clumps to waves. It is not unusual to find the bluebonnets covering hillsides like a huge, fragrant
blanket and, in those moments, this vast expanse of native wildflowers appears to be a rolling, undulating
mirror reflecting the blue sky and white clouds above...stretching as far as the eye can see until the 'mirror'
and its 'reflection' meet on the horizon.

The bluebonnets, ah, the bluebonnets...they are perfect...and so very welcome. Few of us, I believe, would
deny how comforting it is to watch the bluebonnets repeat their ageless cycle and to be caressed by their
gentle fragrance. In a world that is acting out its insanity at an accelerating rate, there are few of us who
would not admit that they sigh with relief to see the bluebonnets and to be reassured that this, at least, is still
right with the world.

Yes, it's bluebonnet time in Texas and, in a large field outside of Waco, the bluebonnets bloom but sparingly.
However, as one travels the road leading to that field, one notices that the bluebonnets are joined by
buttercups, wild verbena, Indian paintbrush and a score more of their kind as though a heavenly florist were
providing an unparalleled bouquet for the dead....making up for our oversight as He so often does. In that
field, clover with yellow buds stretch as far as the eye can see and wild grasses cover the land but nothing
can ever cover the desolation there! The wildflowers and the gentle breeze, the sun and the cattle lowing and
the bullfrogs croaking bespeak harmony and peace but the ruins in the midst tell another tale...of horror and
fear, of tranquility shattered, of pain and death...horrible death...of conflict and of war.

Something else grows in the field but, unlike the bluebonnets, it IS the work of Adam's children. Hard, cold
and gray, it is neither pleasing to the eye nor gentle to the touch. The Fence wraps around what's left of....
what's left of...The Fence wraps around what's left. It keeps the curious out and the secrets in but it cannot
contain the questions. So many questions; so few answers. The tanks have rolled away and the fire has died
away but the questions will not die. The agents died, the believers died...the little children died but the
questions will not die! Other things died there...dreams, ideals, feelings of safety and security all shattered
under tank treads. My Love of Ignorance died in that field and lies buried alongside my naive belief that Uncle
Sam is a benevolent old fellow jealously guarding my best interests and those of my fellow citizens...including
my children. My political lukewarmness, in short, my comfortable life and plans for a comfortable future...all
lost in that field.

                What did you lose in that field?
                        Think about it!
                   Everybody lost something!

And those few who survived the ordeal? Having lost everything, including loved ones, and needing comfort,
love, balm for their wounds on body, mind and soul, and yet, finding themselves moving in a world that is
unreasonably hostile to them...they appear to us to be like the "living dead", do they not? So much death...but
the questions will not die.

The questions....the questions... Questions like.....
why didn't they pick him up in town? or
why such extreme force to serve a warrant on one man?
Why helicopters? Is it true they were firing?
Why are jurors protesting the sentences?
Why are nine people serving life sentences after being acquitted of conspiracy and murder charges?
Why were those two BATF agents reinstated with no explanation to the public?
Why didn't the FBI listen to its own experts?
Why was a gas used on American children this government won't even use on enemy soldiers?
Why did American tanks roll against American citizens?
Why, why, why... on and on it goes.

But there is one question I don't hear asked very often; in fact, I've only heard it once. And yet, it is so
important that all the others pale into insignificance in its shadow. This question does not ask "why" but
"where". WHERE IS THE LOVE? We've seen the anger, the hate, the outrage but where is the love? In this
city........ in the shadow of so many church steeples, where, oh where is the love? Brave love! Daring love!
Love that will reach across an invisible, but very real, barrier! Love that doesn't fear "what will people think";
love that refuses to shut out members of the human family simply because we don't understand them or their
ways?

Ah, but the Media Masters, like pied pipers, have spun a tale and played a tune that suggests to us what to
believe and how to react and, like the unthinking children of Hamlin, have we not blindly followed? It is
suggested that we judge and we quickly do so.....forgetting what the Savior said about judging. Oh, but what
happened there was so horrific, so terrifying and, yet, so close. It is convenient to judge the Davidians, wash
our hands of the matter, put it out of our minds and bask in our own self-righteousness ... forgetting that the
Savior condemns self-righteousness! Do we not seal our own fate?!! In this nation, so uneasily balanced on
a precipice, hymns are sung and sermons preached but where is the Love? Huge amounts of energy and
resources are expended raising elaborate monuments to a simple Carpenter but what is the one thing that He
really desires of us? He who would leave the ninety and nine to seek the one lost sheep? What does He want
of us above all else? "Love God" and "love one another". Love! Where is it?

Let each of us search our own heart and, in the stillness of the night and the solitude of our private place,
present an answer because........
   ...when the rhetoric and debate have ceased
   ...when all of the 'causes' no longer matter,
   ...when you and I are dust...INDEED,
when this groaning globe we so proudly rule is nothing but a cinder floating in space...even then, this one
question will follow us; it will chase us, my friends, past today, through tomorrow, beyond history and into
eternity.......
"WHERE WAS THE LOVE?"

And it is appropriate that we should ponder this question whenever we remember April l9th, 1993,
..............bluebonnet time in Texas.

blue bonnet time in Texas. [applause]