I read Karen Owen's column regarding Short Pump and the realities of life ["The smug suburban life: Where living is easy and the parking is free," April 22].

Truly, there are very few "Short Pumps," and many neighborhoods suffer a dearth in resources.

I love to visit Short Pump. One steps into another world and experiences unusual beauty, cleanliness, and order.

Even if we can obtain such goals only to a limited degree, isn't that what we're all striving for? Seeing is believing it's possible.

The upper-middle-class people who live near Short Pump exhort and pay for their children to get an education. Educated people are usually successful. They form businesses, supply jobs, give scholarships, support the arts, and donate to others less fortunate.

The middle-class and upper-middle-class citizens of the U.S. are the most generous people in the world. With the grace of God, the circle spirals upward.

Living near the "Short Pumps" of the world looks like Utopia. It is an illusion. Reality visits all of us. No one is immune from the mandatory tenets of self-discipline and hard work.

May there be more "Short Pumps" and fewer impoverished communities.

Patricia Leonardo Murray

Fredericksburg