Friend,
No First Responder ever took up the profession, for the money. We didn’t struggle through college while working two jobs and raising a family, for the fun of it. We didn’t struggle, push, fight, cuss, cry, argue, study and pray our way through our difficult, respective Academy Class.
What we did do was, listen to this voice from deep within our heart. We answered what is often referred to as a “Calling”. Many of us, stepped up because we felt we could make a positive difference in this very often, cruel and dangerous world.
If we could wipe away the tears of just one hurting, scared or lost child. If we could save and help, just one woman stand back up and survive an abusive relationship. If we could stop just one more drunk driver from killing an innocent family. If we could perform CPR someday, saving just one more life. And who knows, maybe even catch a robbery or burglary suspect along the way, our lives here would be well spent.
It was, an “all in” commitment. There’s no room for “half ass” work, here. You do your job with tenacious, tireless effort or, don’t do this job at all. Because, people are really hurting and counting on you to save them, help them, protect them. Even if, you’re lost in the fray so that, here in this life, they can stay.
During this unprecedented, frustrating, scary, tiring time, to the point of absolute exhaustion, I and those just like me, we’ll take that one more step. We force one more cup of coffee or energy drink down so that, we can continue to stand up, eyes open and fight our way forward.
This battle, this war with an unseen, ruthless enemy who comes to infect and even kill whomever, wherever it wants, is not for the faint of heart.
Though you may never see our tears, experience our fears or hear our cries of frustration, you can be assured no matter what happens, we’re going to do our job, do our Duty, to fulfill our obligation under Oath, until such time as, we expend our last breath and the last beat of our tired heart.
For some of us, we’ll see you as this page in our world’s history, turns. Life for us, will go on. And, we’ll live our best life then. Not for ourselves, mind you. But, for those whom we’ve lost. For it’ll be in their memory we find, we must carry on. Rest assured, just as sure at the sun rises in the East and sets in the West, we will carry on.
Those First Responders whom we’ve already lost during this fight and to those whom we know, we’ll inevitably lose in the coming days, weeks and months, fear not that your life (or mine) was lost for nothing. For truth be told, our lives were not lost, but given so that others might live.
John 15:13:
“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”
Remember why you’re here…
That was a terrible mistake calling off the search for my lost neighbor Dennis years ago while you investigated a partially overheard conversation at that NoTab Bar… yes the overheard conversation needed to be checked out, but the search in the woods should have continued until it was certain Dennis WASN’T still out there somewhere! That whole search was bungled IMHO, too many incompetent people were involved sorry to say. Just saying… I finally got his cell phone ping gps coordinates straightened out (they had been given to me to map backwards and kept coming up somewhere in China that last day of the search!), it was clear where he was walking in circles out there deep in the woods but nobody would listen by then because Evans had stopped the searching and was only focusing on the bar patrons (who it turned out had not a thing to do with Dennis apparently). :-\
Thank you, Mr. Evans. Y’all may not hear it often from citizens, but we do appreciate all LEOs do on a daily basis. It is appreciated far more than you may ever know.