May I jump on my soap box for just a moment? Humor me will you…
Today was the funeral, procession and burial for a police officer who died in the line of duty on Thursday night. You can read about it here. 
There was a 25 mile long procession route that went from the church where the funeral was held, past the station where he worked on Main Street and then back out to the cemetery where he is being laid to rest. The funeral began around noon, lasted for 2 {ish} hours and then the procession began. It was quite moving to watch. I stood at one of the busiest intersections in town, and I kid you not, you could have heard a pin drop. You could hear the click of the shutter in a camera across 6 lanes of stopped traffic. It was very moving and at the same time a proud moment to see such community pride and respect.
However, I talked to several people today who were miffed at the timing of such an event.
“I hope they don’t plan to do this when schools are getting out.”
“Have they even considered what traffic will be like?”
{These had to be the two comments that made my blood boil}
Nope. I’m pretty sure they didn’t consider OR MIND what the traffic would be like when they shut down 100 intersections on three main roads in our city to take 15 minutes to honor a man who died protecting our community. I highly doubt that mattered much, and I am A-OK with that! No, I don’t think they were concerned when they scheduled the funeral that Fayette County Schools just MIGHT be letting out when a part of the procession went by one or two schools. And why should they have?
I’m sure the only thing on his widow’s mind was what time schools will get out, and how long the funeral might last and making sure that she had the funeral start early enough to accommodate the rest of the city that her husband died for. I’m sure; I’m sure she spent Thursday and Friday making arrangements around everyone else’s convenience… HA! In the words of Stephanie Tanner, "HOW RUDE!"
Have you ever lost a loved one? Does anyone else matter other than your family during those next few days? NO! ABSOLUTELY NOT! AND IT SHOULD NOT.
I am positive though, there were thousands of people who didn’t mind to take an hour out of their day, to stand and honor a man who put his life on the line every day, not just Thursday. I was one of them. I didn’t mind standing with blisters on my feet while I was burned by the sun. That didn’t bother me one bit. What did? The man who yelled from his car, 3 away from the intersection blocked by fire trucks and state troopers,
“What the hell is going on down there? MOVE!”
As 600 police cars crept down the street.
SHOW A LITTLE RESPECT. Now, had I known I arrived really early, I would have gone and picked up Jacob (who was just a few hundred feet away) and brought him back to watch with me. He would not have understood, but I could at least have given him the experience {he probably wouldn’t have remembered.}
But my beef is this… I don’t care what you believe, or who you can’t stand or where you need to be at 2:30. At the end of the day the man being honored today, the man they stopped traffic for around town, the man who has left his wife and 4 year old son at the young age of 27 {yes, 27. The age I myself will be in 4 weeks} should be honored and respected, because he gave up his life, he gave up his family, he gave up his future keeping our streets safe and trying to save another man’s life. For 15 minutes, we can all be a little “inconvenienced”. Those who serve others, I think, should be honored, thanked and respected. Because they do things that I couldn’t bring myself to do, they do the things that those who complain about sitting in traffic when school gets out and not being home 5 minutes later would never dream of doing. They protect, teach and serve – and normally do so with love and feelings that they couldn’t imagine doing anything else. If you feel the need to gripe, please gripe in someone else’s ear, and arrange your schedule that you have the pleasure of arranging because you are here, and you are still with your family, unlike the man we pay our respects to today.
I’ll step down from the soap box now.
Jacob, please learn this: Those who protect you and your family should be respected, honored and admired. I expect nothing less. Neither do the men in our family as most of them have put on a uniform to do just that.
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