Friday, February 5, 2016

Tributes Upaid

There are many 'Unsung Heroes' in our daily lives ~
the Policemen, the Firemen, the First Responders, etc.

It's also the bystander, who in the face of danger,
rescues a person from a burning vehicle.
It's a person, saving the life of a despondent
contemplating a 'jump from the bridge'.
It's also the person who rescues an abandoned kitten
in a vehicle-hazard mall parking lot on a cold wintery day.

In our world of Big Names, curiously, our true heroes tend to be anonymous. In this life of 'illusion' and 'quasi-illusion', the person of solid virtues who can be admired for something more substantial than his 'well-knownness' often proves to be the 'unsung hero': the teacher, the nurse, the mother, the honest cop; the hard workers at the lonely, underpaid, unglamorous underpaid jobs.
(Daniel J. Boorstin)

I Was a Police Officer
(submitted by Tom...no comment needed ...this says it all)

Today, I will not answer the radio call that your boyfriend has come home drunk and is beating you again. Today, I will not answer the radio call that your 16-year old daughter, who is very responsible, is four hours late coming home from school. Today, I will not answer the radio call that your store has been robbed or your house has been burglarized. Today, I will not stop a drunk driver from killing someone. Today I will not catch a rapist...or a murderer...or a car thief. Today, I will not answer the radio call that a man has a gun...or tried to abduct a child...or that someone has been stabbed...or has been in a terrible accident. Today, I will not save your child that you locked in a car...or the child you were too busy to watch who went outside and fell into the swimming pool, but that I revived.
No, Today, I will not do that. Why?

Because, Today, I was killed by a drunk driver while I was helping push a disabled car off the highway.
Today, I was shot and killed during a routine traffic stop to simply tell someone they had a taillight out.
Today, I was killed in a traffic accident...rushing to help a citizen.
Today I was shot and killed serving a warrant on a known drug dealer.
Today I was killed by a man when I came by to do a welfare check because his family was too busy.
Today I was killed trying to stop a bank robbery or a grocery store robbery.
Today, I was killed...doing my job!

A chaplain and an officer will go to a house and tell a Mom and Dad or a Wife or a Husband or a Child, that the son or daughter or husband or wife...or father or mother won't be coming home today.

The flags at many police stations were flown at half-mast today...but most people won't know why.

There will be a funeral and my fellow officers will come; a twenty-one-gun salute will be given...and 'taps' will be played as I am laid to rest.

My name will be put on a plaque, on a wall, in a building, in a city somewhere.

A folded flag will be placed on a mantel or a bookcase in a home somewhere...and a family will mourn.

There will be no cries for justice.

There will be no riots in the streets.

There will be no officers marching, screaming, “No Justice, No Peace!”

No citizens will scream that something must be done.

No windows will be smashed, no cars burned, no stones thrown, no names called.

Only someone crying themselves to sleep tonight
will be the only sign that I was cared about.
I was a police officer!

* * * * * * *

Words of Wisdom
What we do for ourselves...dies with us;
What we do for others and the world...is and remains immortal.
(Author unknown)

Success isn't about how much money you make;
It's about the difference you make (and can make) in people's lives.
(Hilary Clinton)

One child, one teacher, one book and one pen
can change the world.
(Malala Yousafzai from Pakistan
who platformed the 'power of education, human rights, quiet heroes.')

Merle Baird-Kerr...compiled February 24, 2015
Comments are welcome...email to:
inezkate@gmail.com...or...mbairdkerr@cogeco.ca

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