Stewing In My Brain

I haven't written lately because I knew I would vent my frustrations and I am not sure that it is the place. However, I am going to write a quick version of it, then hopefully move on. There is a town celebration and correlates with a church celebration where we live. My parents and I had arranged to sell snow cones during the celebration. A family walked up to us and told us that they were 'assigned' to sell snow cones and that we had taken their spots, blah, blah, blah. They used names and they also used their church as an excuse, as well as being quite overwhelming and demanding. I feel so bad for my parents because they had spent a lot of money preparing for the celebration, but we packed up and left. I didn't want to fight until I knew all the facts. Luckily, we did get the name of the family so that we could confirm their story. And that is just what we did. We called the city office asking if there was a mix up or what happened, and the city office didn't know the people. After many phone calls and the husband of the family getting removed from the city office by police, due to his behavior, we discovered that obviously the people lied in every which way. I am sadden by their actions. Yes, they lied to me and my family, but they ruined it for themselves. In addition to selling snow cone, they had about 5 other activities that they offered at the celebration. Now, I don't believe they are welcome to participate in the town celebration again. Also, they brought religion into it. This part really angers me. We are of the same religion and they were totally offensive. Not only were they offensive, but they claimed to do it in the name of their religion. No wonder some people dislike any religion. There are always a few out there that leave such a bad example that it ruins the image. There can be 99 examples of a religion doing good things, but it only takes 1 bad example to ruin it. Frustrating. Anyway, the deal is over with. We were in the right, but I don't feel happy. I feel sorrow that there are people out there like that. I feel sorrow because I know my kids will have to deal with people like that. I feel sorrow because greed and manipulation has blinded these people to the truth. I feel sorrow because these people have blinded others to how wonderful our church can be. I feel sorrow because there is so much wickedness in the world, one hopes that religion would be a place from the storm, but it is not always so.