Letter of the Week

Again, with the people who have more time on their hands to express their opinions than they ought to.  A guy from Baltimore sent the following letter to the editor of the Baltimore SUN and they printed it.  The writer would want me to mention his name.  Here's the letter:

Today, there are going to be major traffic delays in Baltimore County for the funeral procession for a Baltimore City police officer who was killed in a traffic accident. My heart cries out to his family. Every day he and his fellow officers put their lives on the line to protect us from harm and keep us safe. I couldn't respect these public servants any more than I already do, but I think it's ridiculous to paralyze a portion of the beltway as well as other roads causing havoc to drivers. 

It sounds cold hearted and cruel, but I bet the officer being buried would not want us to be inconvenienced this way. How does making the public suffer like this help the deceased officer and his family and the police department? I understand it's a way of showing respect, but why should this be forced on us and make us wait hours until the procession clears?

I have to figure that this is a young man, writing this letter, and for the funeral procession to jam him up as he attempts to career around the Beltway is just too doggone bad, isn't it.  I figure he's involved in some profession that involves schmoozing people into doing things...hence the faint praise ("I couldn't respect these public servants any more than I already do") before the zinger comes out ("how does making the public suffer like this help the deceased officer...").  Which is like saying, look, this guy is gone, now clear up this traffic and let me get on with my important life.

Son, this procession, this show of support in big numbers, helps the officer's family, and his extended family of public safety professionals, deal with their grief and their loss.  We are truly sorry that you might have suffered the loss of your valuable time.  Perhaps you might have spent that time sitting in your car, thinking about a man who spent his life being a cop for 31 years and was on his way to a training class to learn more about how to help both grateful citizens and ungrateful citizens such as yourself when he was killed in a wreck. 

It's not just that it SOUNDS cold hearted and cruel.  It IS cold hearted and cruel.  Picking on a police funeral.  What's next, going down to the VA hospital and insulting the wounded there?





And please don't presume to speak for what the officer would want.  Just go speak about something else for a while, please.