Honoring Those Who Gave

We buried a local police officer today who was killed in the line of duty this past Monday. Two police officers were killed in the United States on Monday. On average, a police officer in the U.S. dies in the line of duty about once every 54 hours.
Hundreds of police officers from around the state lined our streets in tribute to the fallen officer. The funeral was covered by a local television station. The whole community, it seems, mourned the loss of this officer’s life that had been recognized by his department 12 years ago for an act of heroism. I’m not sure anybody knew, remembers, or cares.
Isn’t it odd how we recognize the contributions of police, fire fighters, and other first responders only when they’ve been killed. Oh, we may give them a piece of paper that says thank you and some type of service recognition pin or ribbon. We might even donate a column inch on page 12 of the lifestyle section recognizing the officer’s contributions.
How fun it is to criticize and ostracize the men and women in dark blue, light blue, brown, black, gray, white, and Park Service green and gray when a broad brush stroke paints them all for the malicious acts of a few. Media repeatedly publicize and nationalize the misdeeds of a handful of bad apples in the profession, yet rarely recognize the daily heroic efforts of the majority. A reporter friend of mine once told me that only the tragic stories get covered because they are out of the ordinary and that when we start seeing front page reports of the good that people do that our society is in deep trouble.
There are numerous tragedies associated with this officer’s death. First and foremost, of course, is that a police officer was killed in the line of duty. Of course there are the tragedies associated with the families of the victim officer and yes, the families of the suspect who killed the officer, who incidentally, was also shot and killed by another officer. But, I find tragedy in the fact that it takes the murder of a police officer to pay him the honor and respect that he so richly deserved before he was killed.
God bless and comfort the family (and police family) of Officer David Wayne Smith of the Johnson City Police Department. “Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.” (Matthew 5:9)