Your Life Matters

Last week was certainly one filled with remarkable sadness, when eleven police officers in Dallas were shot protecting peaceful protestors.

Five of those officers were killed by what turned out to be a lone sniper. I watched the goings on with disbelief wondering why.

We can debate all we want as to the real problem for the protests and would never come close to solving the problem. At one time or another we have all had issues with people in authority. Okay I know that I have.

Whether it is a parent, teacher, principal, coach, boss or law enforcement officer I knew that I was right and they were not.

Notice I didn’t say they were wrong. I may have thought that what I did wasn’t bad enough to be punished for.

Heck, a stern lecture would have been overkill but people in authority aren’t out to punish they want to make sure that I don’t veer off and do something that could hurt me or someone else.

Fortunately I didn’t do anything overly crazy and the right lecture sunk in and made me think that I was partly if not mostly to blame.

It seems to me that we have gotten away from some of those teachable moments because no one wants to think their kid did anything wrong.

It must have been a mistake and then it’s time to blame others because you certainly wouldn’t want anyone to think that you are a bad parent.

You don’t have to be a bad parent for your kid to screw up. Those things happen. The most important thing is to make sure the kid is punished for the misdeed. To me, that is a sign of a good parent and one that shows tough love.

Parents have a tendency to dislike a coach that doesn’t give their kid more playing time even though the coach spends countless hours with the players teaching them the game.

They know who is working hard to improve and wants to be a team player. Let them be coaches and have your child learn the importance of hard work.

It is tough to hear that your child isn’t turning in their assignments or that they are constantly disrupting the classroom. “My kid would never do that; it must be your teaching strategy that is boring him to tears.”

Chances are your kid just might be a nuisance and that is creating problems in the classroom.

How many times have we been stopped by a law enforcement officer for speeding, or crossing the center line, or inattentive driving or a taillight issue? What was our reaction?

“What are you stopping me for I’m keeping up with traffic; I haven’t been weaving in and out of traffic; I thought you guys didn’t stop anyone unless they were going over 80!”

How many stories does a typical officer hear in a day? Why would we want to be confrontational?

I’ve seen the protests and the videos and I wonder what would have happened had the suspect simply answered the officers’ questions in a calm orderly manner?

No law enforcement officer that I know wants to pull their service weapon on a suspect. They know that once that happens everything could go bad in a second. And none of these officers want to have to pull a trigger on a gun.

They are human too and they have to live with the consequences. They want to keep the peace and serve the citizens and keep them safe. But if they have to use that weapon they will do their job.

We have all seen ‘Black lives matter’ and ‘Blue lives matter’ and ‘All lives matter’.

It’s time to start thinking ‘My life matters’ and ‘Your life matters’ and make it a bit more personal.

Because in the long run if we change how we react to authority maybe we won’t see as many confrontations with others that could lead to no good.

It shouldn’t take much. Maybe a little attitude adjustment is all it takes. Maybe that person in authority is trying to help me. Keep your mind open because a good attitude just might keep you alive.