TO MY FLORIDA HERO

"Evil is powerless if the good are unafraid." —President Ronald Reagan

To My Florida Hero

It is a quiet Sunday morning as I write this. It’s cool and overcast right now in Georgia and the peaceful calm is beautiful. He is probably sitting in his chair having a second cup of coffee in that small Florida town where he lives. He has no idea I am thinking of him, but I am. You see, he is a rarity—one of the last “law-men” I know. There are officers and senior officers and many who are good men out there protecting me and others in my town. But this man is just a bit different. You see, I believe that some are just born to the badge. They might have a small job or two before they find that their place is in the law, but when they do they know it is right. These are men who are throwbacks to knights I have read of in history and fable. They have some inner quality that drives them to see that those around them are protected, that the law is sacrosanct, that evil is wiped out.

Inevitably I find that they are usually quiet men, deliberative in their thoughts and actions. I know this because I lived with such a man, my father, and I felt this every day of my life that I spent with him. My father came from a large family, many of whom did not follow the straight and narrow as much as he did. But somehow it was ingrained, or taught through the years and he became one of those anointed knights of the modern day.

These thoughts started when I woke early and checked out what was on television. I got involved in a police story, with a most malevolent perpetrator that was being hunted. That show broke the peace a little—to think that there are people out there that want to hurt or take the life of those around them. But in this same story was a man who would not give up, who indefatigably sought the violator and would not stop until the lawless were caught.

And so, I thought of this man in Florida and a calm came over me because I had known two such men in my life. And how do I know this man in the next state is such a lawman? Well, the short version is that I had undeniable proof. You see, my father, the police officer, was a walking lie detector. All he had to do was shake hands with some other fellow and he knew the character of that man. I know you will think this sounds silly, like witchcraft, that I have too much confidence in my father’s intuition. But others trusted it as well. Through all my years, I never saw it fail—it was uncanny. Long ago, my father shook hands with the lawman I speak of and gave him a resounding passing grade on having the highest character. That was all I needed to know.

The Florida knight is actually related to me, as his wife is family. She and her husband remind me of my parents, whom I always saw as Maureen O’Hara and John Wayne’s characters in the movie, The Quiet Man. My mother was a feisty, Southern gal and my father was the quiet man. This same duality is apparent in my cousin and her husband. Of course I love her, she is blood, good, honest and has a sense of humor. But the man she married has my love as well because he is one of the best men I know.

He is retired now, but I am still comforted that he is alive and well. His fellow officers are glad as well, as they know they can call upon him if he is needed and he will come. He will come because lives are in danger, or the law has been broken, or friends and neighbors are in need of his service. So, I put my worries aside because he is there, and I do know there are others in this world like him. There are many who are willing to risk or give their lives for others. I am calmer because such people exist, because they fit the description written by William Cowper:

“He holds no parley with unmanly fears,

Where duty bids he confident steers,

Faces a thousand dangers at her call,

And, trusting in his God, surmounts them all.”

                 William Cowper