When I was younger, I did not have as many favorable interactions with police, but now that I'm older (and wiser), I see that the biggest way their work effects us is in the way we DON'T see what they do. Being blessed to live in a neighborhood where I've only had to call the police for graffiti and a scammer, I don't see crime, I don't live in fear (my large dog also helps with that I admit. I think he's more effective than most security systems). The absence of it though is something that can be taken for granted. If I lived in a different community, I would see more what the police were and were not doing, it would probably be more obvious. But rest assured, if there were no police, we would all be living in anarchy.
I don't want to get into the politics, I don't have the energy for fighting and I can see truths on both sides of the equation, but I have been blessed to know that, overall, police officers are good and when they are not, they are people who are imperfect, just like all of us. I have tried not to watch the news too much. From being a girl who was once a complete news junkie, I am trying to back away little by little and protect my son from learning too early about the imperfect world he lives in. We let him have glimpses of sadness and people making the wrong decisions, but I'm fine with him for now thinking that a gun is a toy in Colonial Williamsburg and not an instrument of something more finite. At least for now.
This weekend, as I felt overwhelmed by the news and the politics I too my son for his first trip over to the police station. We took cinnamon rolls and cupcakes and we said, "Thank you". When everything is overwhelming, sad and despairing, it's time to step back and be grateful for those who do their part to make our world a safer place.
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