Focus on the Good

As a teacher, you have to understand that sometimes students make you angry.

It started last week as I was walking my class out to parent pick-up. We were one of the first classes out, so the hallways were quiet and there were 3 officers outside helping with traffic control.

That’s when it happened.

One of my kiddos, a first grader, spotted an officer and immediately put his hands in the air, as if to surrender, and said, “Don’t Shoot”.

My immediate reaction was anger. I was upset with this child who would say unkind words to the people who are here to protect us. I stopped walking my class to their spot and turned around to talk to the student. I let him know that law enforcement officers are here to protect us and not to harm us. I told him that what he had just done was disrespectful.  I encouraged the child that the job of an officer is not to shoot people, but to protect all of us, including him.

My class went home and I ended my work week.

Now I’m sitting here on a Saturday night and it’s hitting me.

I am not angry; I am heartbroken. I’m heartbroken that a six year old would grow up in a time where he is taught that all officers harm civilians.

I’m heartbroken that the media is choosing to focus on all the “harm” that officers are inflicting on the public. While I am not denying that some officers have crossed a line, I am calling bullshit on the media.

What if, instead of focusing on the negative, the media focused on all the LEOs who successfully complete a shift without incident?

These men and women are putting their lives on the line in order to protect us and what is the media doing? They are  focusing on the negative. So much so, that officers are now second-guessing whether or not they should fight back and instead are receiving a brutal beating.

This has to stop.

Let us focus on the good: the good in every career, the good that the police are doing each and every day, the good in each person.

We need to stop feeding into the lie that all officers are bad. We need to stop devouring every news story that features  “When Officers Attack” or whatever stupid headline they tag each story with.

We need to focus on the good and be better examples to our youth. We cannot have children growing up believing that no one is here to protect them, believing that LEOs are the enemy.  Our children are learning, each day, they are learning. They are sponges. If you are eating up the dramatics that the media is feeding you, then so are your children.

Do your research, inform your children. Support your local Police Department. Support your LEOs. They are keeping you safe, more than you know. They are keeping all of us safe.

Let us focus on the good.

XO - Megs