Respect

I came across this photo on the wall of our Post Office as Susan and I picked up a package yesterday.
This photo of a picture on a wall lacks the power that the actual photo possesses—or at least the power I felt when I stood in front of it.
I wish I had taken a better picture. I wish I had read the dog tag hanging from the frame because now I wonder if it was his; or more romantically; was it left by a fellow soldier as a tribute to a fallen hero.

The picture is one taken years ago of Noah Harris, a young man who grew up in our newly adopted home town. He went to the same schools as our kids and graduated in the same high school, then went on to graduate from ROTC at UGA.

Noah was killed in a firefight during Operation Iraqi Freedom in Baqubah, Iraq in 2003 at the young age of 23.

Susan and I were at an awards ceremony one night at the high school and I listened as a woman spoke to the graduating students. It was Noah’s mother and I remember wondering how she could hold her emotions in check as she spoke of her son’s life—and of his death.

I never met Noah, but now I know his mother.

Lucy Harris told the crowd that Noah’s favorite saying, one that he’s known for is, ‘I do what I can,’ or IDWIC.

To learn more about his life I went to her website. It’s an amazingly uplifting story of a man taken from us too soon and I encourage you to take a look.
http://idwic.com/

As we left the Post Office my mind does what it always does, it starts putting words into thoughts and the thoughts turn into stories.

I began to think of those that gave the ultimate sacrifice to protect our way of life—a sacrifice to complete strangers, to those that shame us by kneeling when they should be standing tall. I know they have the right to protest, people like Noah, and Brett Dickey and Pete Caines and Emilio Miyares died giving them those rights.

I never met Brett Dickey either. Brett was a Gilmer County Sheriff killed in a firefight before I moved to Ellijay. But I know one of the men that was with him that night; Mark was wounded too but survived. Two men just trying to earn a living, trying to support their families and then in a flash, their lives were changed.

Pete and Emilio were my close friends and co-workers in Hialeah, two good men shot down and killed in the line of duty.

It’s hard for me to understand those who choose to disrespect the men and women who protect us at night while we sleep in our comfortable beds.

Take a moment and read the links below to learn of these four men who died for us all.

http://www.odmp.org/officer/14721-deputy-sheriff-brett-c-dickey
https://www.odmp.org/officer/418-sergeant-pedro-antonio-pete-cainas
https://www.odmp.org/officer/9450-police-officer-emilio-fidel-miyares
http://thefallen.militarytimes.com/army-1st-lt-noah-harris/927079