I've tried....

You know, I've truly tried to stay out of this and not make a comparison and certainly try to stay out of all the politics of it all, but I've just about had about all I can take and I guess since this is my own personal blog I can share my own personal opinions and if you don't agree or like it you can stop reading or stop following me any ole time you would like. I am the first one to say that all lives matter. Absolutely 100% agree with that. Here is the issue I have. We have spent a FULL YEAR focused on one man, who was obviously not following the law to the fullest extent or likely would not have found himself on the wrong side of it. Now, let me first say, I'm truly sorry a man lost his life at whomever was at fault so I don't want it to think that no one was "not" at fault here, but I don't think it was soley the police officer(s) fault either. What has a bug up my crawl if you will is the fact that we have now spent a full year talking about the death, sad as it is, of this man and there were a few hours that I can remember where any type of media (mostly local) that covered the death (KILLING) of my son in Afghanistan who was protecting ALL citizens AND not to mention, trying to help the civiilians of the Afghan people who are not active participants of the Taliban. My son isn't the only one that has lost his life doing this heroic act of patriotism. Sadly, we are still continuing to lose our service men and women in combat and even once they return home and the visions and memories of combat never leave them end up causing them their lives. How many times or even how often to you here the media and others a full year later "celebrating" these mean and women's lives? HMMMMMM.... I didn't think so! This man, as sad as it is he had to lose his life, was obviously not complying with the law enforcement comands, had a history of drug use and if I'm not mistaken (I could be remembering incorrectly) had drugs in his system that faithful night. Now there are multiple police officers' lives that will never be the same (regardless of prison time or not), because I know any time they have to resort to making a snap decision to take the life of anyone based on individual case by case sitiuations is not only difficult, but one that sticks with them forever. However, you have people/groups that chose to crucify these officers regardless what the perpetrator may or may not have been doing or what threat the officers felt they were in at the time. It just amazes me. What amazes me more is the attention these few situations get when there are so many more real innocent lives are lost on the battle field or because of the battle field that barely have their name mentioned let alone have so much media attention or heaven forbid a National Day declared in their name (watch, that will be next). Well, guess what? My son did make a decision on his own to enlist and fight for our freedom. Yes, I get that comment quite often sadly, but that's okay. They are right, he knew what he was getting into (kind of). Technically he was told he wouldn't have to see combat since he was a single child and then once he went to Iraq, because he was also told (well, technically I was told) that if he chose to stay behind while his unit deployed that it would be made very hard on him. However, once he went to Iraq he was told he really didn't have to go on this 2nd deployment since he did go to Iraq and he was an only child, but he couldn't let his unit go since he was the radio operator because he couldn't live with himself if something happened to one of his guys and he wasn't there to help them. So yes, he signed up and put his life on the line, but he was 19 years old and when you have a recruiter telling you that you won't have to deploy to war and then you get close to a group of guys that become your family away from home and you are trained to have their back you go. So did he really understand the true consequences of deployment and what that could ultimately mean for him personally? NO! I do not think so! So for those of you that have told me or anything other Gold Star family that, shame on you. That has to be the coldest and most disrespectful thing you could say to us. don't you think we already know that shit? They did it for the greater good, certainly not for themselves. I'm just saddned that someone with a criminal past or using drugs or obviously not obeying the law and sadly ends up hurt or worse gets so much press and attention and has people rallying around them when we have these innocent young men and woment out there fighting for the right for all these people to do what the hell they want to do getting no recognition or hell, even a proper thank you! There are actually groups out there smitting on our fallen and protesting their funerals. Yeah, how do you think that makes Gold Star families feel? They have already been broken in ways most will never (hopefully) know, but yet there are people that think this type of behavior should be allowed. You have groups holding riots and some violent protets over different mistreatments or deaths by police officers (not saying all deaths by police officers are justified, there are definitely those that are not), but where are you when our service men and women are being killed by terrorist and are brought home to their final resting place? Where are you when these other radical groups are trying to protest their funerals or burning OUR American flags? I hope this gives someone a moment to pause and just think about this injustice. There is a huge imbalance in this world today. So for me on May 25th every year, I will be "celebrating" what would be my son's birthday instead of recognizing the person who sadly passed away while trying to be arrested by police for whatever presumed crime he allegedly committed.