Another Fallen member...

I live in a small town where everyone knows who I am. I work in a place where people come in and out all day. Many people asked me what I thought about the latest member gunned down in Nunavut. "It's terrible, a tragedy", "He was so young, and our thoughts go out to the family", and "It really hits close to home" are things that I say to the people who ask this question. There is nothing I could say that truly expresses how it feels to hear that news and think, that could have been my husband. That was someone's husband ( or brother, or father...) the families.. their sadness...As a mother of a toddler, and a wife to a RCMP member.. all of the deaths of members in the line of duty have caused me to put myself in the situation of the mothers, wives, and sisters who have lost these special men and women. I know it is so easy to take our loved ones for granted as they walk out the door each night. I know I don't think about the repercussions of my husband heading out each night, because frankly, I can't. To cognitively think about the fact that the person I love so much is putting their life on the line to police people that in the majority of cases, are ungrateful and treat them as if they were an annoyance makes me irate. When I overhear people talking about how they got a speeding ticket from some 'stupid cop' I want to approach them and ask, "Do you believe that people should be punished when they break the law? Then, if you were speeding, why do you believe you should not be punished. You broke the law. It is their job to make sure you are aware that you broke the law. Stupid is not enforcing the law, it's breaking it" . Simply put, it shouldn't take these tragedies for people to wake up and realize that as a society, we are breeding a generation who thinks that is it ok to hate the people that will lose their lives for your safety. Whether it's the 'stupid' cop that gave you a speeding ticket, or the 'jerk' that gave you a DUI when you hardly blew over... just remember what it is they were sworn to do. Protect us, even if it is from ourselves.

I have been where you fear to be
I have seen what you fear to see
I have done what you fear to do
All these things I've done for you

The man you ask to stand apart
The man you feel has no heart
The man you call the man in blue
But I'm just a man just like you

I am the man you lean upon
The man you cast your scorn upon
The man you bring your troubles to
All these men I've been for you

And through the years I've come to see
That I am not what you ask of me
So take this badge and take this gunWill you take it? - Will anyone?

And when you watch a person die
And hear a battered baby cry
Then do you think that you can be
All these things you ask of me.

- Author Unknown