The Lakewood Tradegy - Finding Commonplace

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2010656223_guest04rahr.html

It is hard to even begin to understand the brutality of an police murder, but when there is multiple murders over the course of several months - it is unthinkable. We admittedly cannot understand the pain of the police officers around Washington State, or around the country for that matter. I could only imagine that a sense of security that they never fully even had to begin with has been stripped away to the point of nonexistence. It is a reminder that people, good and terrible are capable of anything. It is, however, also a reminder that police officers serve us everyday, selflessly.

While we can never truly understand the pain endured by the officers after those multiple tragedy's, we begin to feel that emptiness as Sheriff Rahr describes how it feels to experiences that loss. "The closest I can come to describing how many of us feel is to ask that you remember how you felt in the weeks and months after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. It's like that." With that, we are able to recall that feeling of emptiness that we have been violated. I remember that feeling, as I am sure we all do. It was a feeling of always being suspect to your surroundings. Never fully understating why and ultimately feeling hopeless to protect yourself. It was a feeling that maybe can never go away and is surely never forgotten.

It is with this description that we can begin to relate to the author. Though, we know we can never fully comprehend the extend of the tragedy because we are not police officers, it is an emptiness that we have all at one time felt.It is with this that she describes what exists for her: it is a feeling of this empty, insecure place that we cannot fully understand unless we experience. What is absent here is the feeling that she can trust people fully without taking a second look at them. It is that assumption that she considers a handicap in moving forward and moving on. However, she also acknowledges a community, a great one. One full of love, support and hope that works to take away the pain - if only for a moment. There is still good out there in the world, there is still a good world full of honest people that she needs not forget.

In terms of degree, it is obvious that her pain is greater than the norm. While the public is hurting, she has lost a comrade and a part of herself. The definition of her job will change forever and her views. Thins have been better in the past and though she has not lived in ignorance, the reality of her job becomes more real in the event of this tragedy.

While it may never be possible to forget, it is possible to see good in others and slowly heal. She outlines small acts of kindness that undoubtedly help her grow in this process. Yet, as we never forget the vulnerability that we felt after September 11, that feeling will be forever present in her work and it will never be forgotten; much in the same way we always hope nothing bad will happen on a plane when we are flying. While we can move past it and fly once again, it will never be forgotten as a real threat which could ultimately change our opinions of something we may have felt free of fear from in the past.