I had trouble operating and publishing a blog with blogspot. So I decided to go with myspace.com instead for publishing future blogs. Check it out.

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=11894058&MyToken=801bc854-9b79-4c12-9d3b-c11ab9613c83

I know this is a rerun, but this is a "director's cut" that I hope you will enjoy and be insipred by:

Wake Up Call

Why RU here?!?  Why did you join the POlice Department ?!?

That is a question every veteran officer asks every rookie. Quite frankly, there are times I myself even ask that question. Especially, after a day of making "rookie mistakes", after being held over several times in a row, spending countless hours in court, answering a myriad of calls for service, after dealing with a whole buch of cases of "baby's mama drama", commuting two hours a day to and from DC, and especially after working 45 of the past 72 hours.  On occasion, one has to ask himself what he/she is doing here!

A few years after getting out of the military, I accepted the fact I was a civilian. I also decided I wasn't going to give a hoot or holler about world affairs, politics, or civic issues. My plan was simple, I drew up a "to do" list of things I was going to do as soon as I found a new career, my own place. One of those things was to start traveling the world. Finding a decent paying job seemed out of my grasp in the late 90s. But I still wanted to knock out at least one thing on my "to do" list.

That particular year, my mom thought it would be a great idea if I travelled to the land of my ancestors (I'm 50% Irish). I've never been overseas before and it was one of the things on my "to do" list. So, my mom made the arrangements for a one-week vacation in Ireland and a few months later, we were on a flight from Baltimore to Shannon, Ireland.

The flight was a little rough with quite a bit of turbulence. I was worried we were going to crash in the Atlantic Ocean or something. Fortunately, that didn't happen. We landed safely in Ireland. Had to fight jet lag the first several hours. But I managed to recuperate. My mom rented a car that was a little large for the roads of Ireland. They make the roads of West Virginia look like freeways!

The first place we visited was the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland. For the first time, on my birthday, I was looking westward across the Atlantic, wondering what was going on back in America. But it wasn't long before I found out what was going on. As my mom and I came down from the cliffs, we heard this broadcast over the Irish radio network....................................

That the twin towers in New York City were attacked by terrorists!

We didn't believe it at first. We thought it was some tabloid. But we got to the bed and breakfast my mom and I were staying at and we turned on the news only to see two planes crashing into the WTC buildings and the buildings tumbling down. It was like something out of the movie "Armagedon" except it was real. I remember trying to call back to the states to see if all my friends were allright. Only to find that the lines were busy.  Another issue we had to deal with was the prospect we were going to be stranded in Ireland for more than a week.

With the telephone lines to the USA down. There was only one other way we can get communication to America. The next day, we had to drive to the city of Galway. It was only 50 miles away. However, with the roadways of Ireland, it was half a days trip. Anyhow, when we got to Galway, reserved a room at the B&B, we began to explore the town. I found an internet cafe with long distance phone service.

I made a long distance call home to ensure a friend back home, Chris Williams was watching our house. I also checked my email only to find 50 email messages from the members of Crosscurrent.  I remember Pastor Chris sending an email saying that many of us over the years may be called to fight in this war on terror.  I remember reading an email from my best friend, Eric Monier, how his wife, who he recently married was fleeing the city with her coworkers when the terrorists attacked. I remember how they told me DC wasn't the same as it was before 9-11.

From there on out, we were trying to enjoy the rest of the trip. On one hand, we felt guilty that here we were on vacation while our nation was attacked and people were suffering back home. OTOH, we were determined that the terrorists were not going to take our vacation from us. Also, there was nothing we can do if we were back home anyway. But I began to think what I was going to do when I got home.

We visited Westport and the mountian of Crough Patrick. Westport is like the West Virginia of Ireland LOL. We also visited Limerick, Kilarney, Killiney, the Ring of Kerry, and Galway once more.
We were fortunate enough for the airports to reopen the same day our trip was scheduled to end.  After landing at BWI, we were driven to the parking lot where my car was waiting. As I drove back to Virginia, I saw the stars and stripes draped from every overpass along I-95 and I-495. It was a welcome sight.

Reality of the events continued to sink in for everyone around me after my return home. My sister lost her $30,000 a year job working for the Airline Reporting Corporation because of what happened on 9-11. Crosscurrent's largest employer, Atlantic Coast Airlines, began laying off people after 9-11. My initial plan to simply find a decent paying job,  afford my own place, and knocking out stuff on my to do list crashed along with those twin towers!

But a "to do" list seemed to be little irrelevant now anyway. Our nation was at war. I wanted in on this war. There were times I would be sitting down and thinking about rejoining the military as an enlisted soldier and siging up to fight in Afghanistan or Iraq. Then I would snap out of it as soon as my mom said "don't even think about it"! 

I watched the news one night and  I saw a picture of a police officer and a firefighter raising a flag over the ruins of the WTC. Another night, I read an article in USA Today on how the US Government was training all these new Law Enforcement Officers down in FLETC to fight in this war on terror. I also saw on the news the role local police forces had when the Beltway Sniper (who was influenced by Al-Queda) was terrorizing our region.  I began to realize that soldiers, airmen, sailors and marines weren't the only ones engaged in this new War on Terror. Firefighters, Rescue Workers, and Law Enforcement Officers were needed as well. That was when I decided I was going to serve my nation as a police officer.

Some officers asked me "What terrorists?" "There are no terrorists in SE Washington!" But in my mind, all violent criminals are terrorists. MS-13 is just as much as a terrorists organization as Al Queda. Besides, with all the police guarding against terrorists, someone has still to fight the everyday street crime that plagues our streets.

Now I know what some of you all are saying, man that is four years ago! You are pursuing a career because of an event that happened four years ago? Yeh-it's been four years and we are still in this war aren't we? Four years and how many casulties later if you include the fronts in Afghanistan, Iraq, NYC, DC (the Beltway Snipers and the ususal street crime) and all the missionaries that have been martyred since 9-11? We haven't even begun to rebuild the WTC in New York yet! 

As tragic as 9-11 was, I hope it was a wake up call for all of us to rise as a nation to either (a) contribute to this nation's defense and security (b) to bring and keep the peace or (c) to heal the wounds and social ills of our nation and world. And while everyone may disagree on the "battles" of Iraq and Afghanistan. We all should agree that there are battles to be fought here at home. Battles against poverty, injustice, racism, drugs, crime/violence, broken homes, ecological destruction, illiteracy, and other social ills. And while we may disagree on rebuilding Iraq and Afghanistan, we all agree that there are communities, families and people that need rebuilding both here and aborad.

Anyhow, three years later, after seeing Crosscurrent ppl going off to war as soldiers, airmen, marines, sailors, and contractors, or to bring peace as missionaries; after the Beltway Sniper shootings; after going through a year long application process to MPD and other agencies, and after nine months at the academy; I finally ended up on the streets of DC. And in all places of DC, I got assigned to one of the roughest places of the whole city.

It's now been eight months since I set foot on the streets of DC, beginning an even much longer and arduous task that think our whole generation faces................

To fix what had been broken.