Saturday, April 22, 2006

2004 National Peace Officers Memorial

(I serve as a police chaplain, and in 2004 was drafted to give the memorial speech when the scheduled speaker had to cancel at the last moment. My remarks follow.)

Chaplain Brooks, our scheduled speaker, is today with a family who is suffering the untimely and unexpected death of a loved one. He called late yesterday afternoon to let us know that his ministry and duty would not allow him to be here.

How ironic, yet fitting, that the person chosen to honor peace officers whose family and personal plans are frequently interrupted by a call to duty, is himself called away to help someone in need.

“Helping someone in need” is often how we think of law enforcement officers. There to help when needed. But our peace officers play a much more vital role in our country and in our community than simply providing help to citizens in need.

Thomas Jefferson summarized the basic rights of all men in the Declaration of Independence when he wrote that among the unalienable rights of men are the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Governments, he went on, are established to secure those precious and basic rights. The duty our peace officers fulfill, then, is much more than simply helping people in distress, but they are in fact the first line of defense in insuring our basic God-given rights.

Your right to life is preserved by the men and woman who work diligently, night and day, to track down those individuals known to harm others, to keep drunk drivers off the street, to stop the use of illegal drugs.

Your right to liberty is protected by badge-wearing men and women whose presence guarantees the freedom to go where you want and do what you want without fear.

The pursuit of happiness is insured by peace officers who patrol your neighborhood while you sleep, who track down thieves and return stolen goods to their rightful owner.

Police officers stand daily on the front lines as defenders of democracy. That vigilance does not come without a price. More than 51,000 peace officers are assaulted annually in the line of duty. 16,000 of them will be injured. More than 160 will die. That is why we are gathered here this morning, joining hundreds of communities around our great nation in honoring those officers who have given their lives in the defense of our freedom.

Last Thursday evening, 362 more names were engraved on the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington D.C. 362 more men and women who gave their lives to preserve those basic rights Thomas Jefferson defined. They join the more than 16,000 - including our own Officer Maynard - already listed. Engraved near the entrance to that memorial is a statement that reflects our appreciation for their commitment. “It is not how these officers died that made them heroes. It is how they lived.”

Since our peace officers are the first-line of defense of our freedom, it is fitting, then, to borrow the words of Abraham Lincoln to remind us we cannot simply acknowledge the sacrifice these have made and walk away. But as he told that gathering at Gettysburg so long ago, “Le us here be dedicated to the great task remaining before us--that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion--that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth."

With gratitude and resolve we say thank you to the family of Officer Maynard, and to those families whose fathers and mothers, sisters and brothers, proudly serve with integrity behind the badge that represents the very best on Earth.

May God bless you all.

1 comment:

Mello said...

Welcome to the blogosphere! You should make a great blogger with such diverse experiences. These were certainly interesting.