The beauty of the soul shines out when a man bears with composure one heavy mischance after another, not because he does not feel them, but because he is a man of high and heroic temper. - Aristotle
To me that is the definition of a hero. Our peace officers go out there every day and put their lives on the line for us. They get little respect if any, work for minimal pay, and face an apathetic if not hostile public day in and day out. There are few days that go by that they're not cursed, ridiculed, and slandered. The media for the most part will forever report only the bad stories, when an officer makes a mistake or takes a misstep, and then slant that story in such a way to put him or her and his or her department in the worst possible light. They seek out and find the one officer in thousands who misfits the badge and makes them a headline story that tarnishes the image of every officer in the country. And yet...they get up every day, they pick up that badge, they go out the door, and they do their job if not with a smile at least with professionalism and the dignity that their profession embodies. If that's not the very definition of bearing "with composure one heavy mischance after another, not because he does not feel them, but because he is a man of high and heroic temper" then I don't know what is.
They go through doors when they don't know who is on the other side, they go around corners when they don't know what's waiting for them, they make those routine traffic stops that they know could be anything but routine. They stand between us and those who would do us harm. They see the worst of the worst of what we as a public do to each other day in and day out. And yet they still go on. They still have the compassion to take a small child's hand in theirs and comfort them when they're lost or afraid. They still risk their own lives to save ours. They stand in front of us, beside us, and behind us. It's a shame that most of us aren’t standing in front of, beside, and behind them.
They say they're not heroes. They say they’re just doing their job. I have to respectfully disagree. They look into a mirror and see a cop. I'm looking in that mirror from a different angle. I see a hero.
Does the media carry a portion of the blame for the way our officers are treated? My personal opinion is yes, they do. The loss of an officer barely gets a shrug of the shoulders with maybe the exception of their local station like 'it's their job' or 'well he must have made a mistake'. Why does it take something like what happened in Oakland or 9/11 before anybody starts paying attention? And why aren't we, the general public, taking the media to task for not making sure their viewers know and understand who the real heroes are and that somebody obviously has declared open season on our officers? If you stopped a hundred people on the street on any given day and asked them if they know that a specific celebrity died...you would get one hundred who said yes. If you asked those same one hundred people if they know that as of July 26, 2009 that we have already lost 73 officers in the line of duty this year alone...I bet you wouldn't get one who knew that. And that's not right. Shame on the media, shame on us, and shame on those who have the power to influence public opinion and are letting their views be distorted by publicity and often undeserved fame. And a final "shame" on those who are allowing themselves to be led around like sheep to a slaughter instead of thinking for themselves. There are exceptions to the biased media coverage that is the norm with specific stations that go out of their way to shed a well-deserved positive light on what our peace officers do for us and report those rare instances of bad news about them fairly. When we find one of those, we, the viewers, should be commending them for their actions and letting them know that they are appreciated and give them our support just as we should be voicing our protests to those who don’t.
The perceptions of our officers by the general public may never change. But that will never stop me from trying to make it change. I came to this late. I spent a lot of years being one of those who wasn't paying attention. Well, I'm paying attention now and I may not change everybody's mind, but maybe I can change ONE person's mind. That's one more than we had yesterday. And maybe we can both change one mind tomorrow...now we've doubled again. I'm not saying it will be an easy task, and I'm not saying it will be a truly achievable task. But, I'm trying. And I'm not alone. There are a lot of us. The ~A Tribute To Those Who Wear The Shield~ cause is more than 15,000 strong now with a mix of officers and supporters, which is not bad considering we were at 500 members in February. Okay, that's a drop in the bucket compared to the general population at large, but it's 15,000 people who at least took the time to take an action that says "I care". So there are people who care and there are people who know and understand what our officers do for us.
Will these officers ever see themselves as heroes? My guess would be probably not. But to those of us standing on the outside looking in, those of us who don't have the courage to do what they do...they are heroes to us and we thank them.
Written By: Peggy Parker - Administrator of the Facebook Cause
~A Tribute To Those Who Wear The Shield~
August 15, 2009
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