Remembrance

As Police Officer Memorial Day approaches please remember those who are disabled as well as those who perished. If you are fortunate enough to be retired with mind and body scarred but intact, if you are still on the job - even if grumbling and discouraged - remember those who would give anything to be back on the streets with you. When we are young and fearless and willing to die we seldom think about the willingness to bear chronic pain, to live life looking outwardly weak bowed by deformity, to lose sight and senses that reorder the way we experience the world, to be changed so much in body, mind, and spirit that our families don't know us anymore, to watch a patrol car speeding past and cry because you can't go with them, and to fight your own body while losing friends and finances. Salute the graves, yes. But do not forget the living who gave themselves also.