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A Personal Awakening, Post 9-11
By
Sgt. Jeff Baker
In spite of being a career cop and son of a United States Marine, I didn’t realize the full extent of my love of country and patriotism until the morning of September 11, 2001. I can now better appreciate some of the emotions my father feels when he speaks of his little brother—the Uncle George I never knew—being killed in the Korean War and posthumously receiving the Silver Star, or the feelings my grandparents were flooded with as a result of the attack on Pearl Harbor.
In the aftermath of these astonishing acts of war on our nation, my respect for many has grown steadily. Respect for the national and local media, both electronic and print, for what’s been compassionate, multi-dimensional coverage of these gruesome events. For legitimate U.S. citizens in the Muslim community for their denouncement of the attacks and patriotism in rallying behind our collective flag. For the President and other elected leaders in the country, both ultra-liberal and staunchly conservative and those somewhere in between, for their cooperation, clarity of thought and unity of action in a perilous time. For family and friends of the dead for clenching their teeth and proclaiming that their spirit will not be quelled despite unfathomable personal sorrow. For the hundreds of police, fire and EMS personnel who gave their lives, brave souls who rendered aid and, in many cases, unknowingly hustled to their deaths by scrambling up stairwells of the two crumbling titans in Manhattan. For our veterans, and military personnel of the United States who are serving now and in the months and years ahead in the nation’s quest to stomp terrorists back under the dank rocks from which they slithered. And for our global allies who will help us pound them into submission or, to my delight, their extinction.
Some months ago I wrote about apathy that has struck many in the law enforcement community. About cops asking themselves why they should work hard, take risks and expose themselves to all manner of personal, political, civil and administrative jeopardy. I now see the answer to my own musings. And ironically, it’s something of a microcosm of what we’ve observed in New York and our nation’s capitol.
The answer then, at least to me, is simple: to lie down and do nothing or just the scant minimum is to concede defeat to the persons and forces around us that would have us fail in our roles as public servants and protectors of the good. The nation cannot allow international terrorists to win this war and, locally, we cannot afford to let the criminal element win the war over our city’s streets.
We cannot give up.
The World Trade Center’s mountainous pile of 220 combined stories and 1.25 million tons of wreckage is not nearly as substantial as the backbone and will of the people this tragedy has left behind. Just as the survivors, leaders, citizens, clergy and rescuers from September 11 have shown unimaginable resilience, we too must persevere and not buckle under the pressures associated with being a cop. Just as it’s time for a nation to stick together, it’s time we do so as law enforcement officers as well.
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Note: No use or reproduction w/o express permission of author and only then with full credit given in reprint. E-mail Sgt. Baker at opdsgt@yahoo.com
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