Backing the Blue

A Fort Worth Police Officer was working a traffic accident last week in the early morning hours, when a driver whose alcohol content was extremely high, came up a freeway ramp in the wrong direction and hit the officer, who was pronounced deceased at the hospital a few hours later.  There are at least four reasons why this bothers me: (1) I come from a long line of police officers: Several Great Uncles, one Uncle, numerous distant cousins, one first cousin, and my son, now retired as a federal police officer.  I myself am a thirty year veteran of the Code Blue Citizens on Patrol, having served three years as Captain of one neighborhood association, and a graduate of the Fort Worth Citizens Police Academy.  (2) I’ve never seen much good that comes out of alcohol. Beginning as a teen-anger when a guy who had simply stopped off for a few drinks after work, hit the car I was in at 100 miles per hour, costing me a year of high school and several months in a hospital bed. (3) I was named after the Temple, Texas, Chief of Police, a close friend of my parents.  His name was Danforth, but everyone called him Mr. Dan.  I feel pride every time someone calls me Dr. Dan. (4) In addition to these human reasons, my spiritual reason comes from Proverbs 20:1, “Wine is a mocker, strong drink is a brawler, and whoever is led astray by it is not wise.”  I back the blue.  End of vent, or is it a rant? Whichever!