Law Enforcement 101

In early August, I posted on my Facebook that I had been accepted into the local law enforcement Citizens Academy. Within a day, that post had 67 likes from my friends and family…one of my more popular posts! I’m not sure whether they were happy for me or thought that I needed some straightening out!

I have completed week four of the 11-week course and so far it has been interesting and in some cases, fun. The academy was developed to give the general public a more up close and personal look at what our law enforcement officers deal with on a regular basis. I decided to apply for it for several reasons. I wanted to build a better working relationship between the Saline County Commission on Aging and local law enforcement. It’s not that we have a bad relationship. I just think it could be stronger. I also wanted to participate because I have always had an interest in what law enforcement personnel do. I grew up in a time when it was the in thing to have a radio scanner in one’s home. I chunk of my childhood was listening to 10 codes. The other reason was because of my uncle. He was in the Citizens Academy in 1994. He died before he could finish the class, so I am finishing for the family.

The academy was shut down a number of years ago, but our new police chief, Brad Nelson, who was used to having an academy at his previous post, visited with Saline County Sheriff Glen Kochanowski about restarting the academy. The two of them, along with numerous personnel from both the Salina Police Department and the Saline County Sheriff’s Office put the program together and my class is the first one in the new era!

Our first night included a tour of the jail and of the law enforcement complex. I had toured the jail a few years ago, but it has changed since then. On my first tour, two of the prisoner pods were for men and one was for women. At that time the jail was full. Now, two of the pods are used to house women, some of the men are housed at other facilities, and the jail is still full. As our tour guide put it, the women are wanting to be as tough as the men and are doing more crimes that in the past were only associated with men. Also, long time law enforcement personnel are now seeing the children and grandchildren of people they arrested years ago being booked into jail. Perhaps if we could find a way to break that cycle we could reduce crime.

I also thought the approach in dealing with the prisoners was interesting and one that could be applied to the outside world as well. Our tour guide said that when dealing with prisoners, corrections personnel cannot act as though they are better than the prisoners. “I am no better than they are. I just made better choices,” she said.

My group began its tour of the law enforcement complex in the public lobby of the police department. We were buzzed through the door into the police department and a few steps down the hallway we came to a memorial to Patrolman Jerry Ivey (yes, the man for whom the park was named), who was killed while pursuing a robbery suspect near Thomas Park in north Salina in June of 1975. Included were his badge and other hardware he wore on his uniform, as well as a rubbing of his name from the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington, D.C.

A bit further down the hallway was a room used for children who have been taken out of bad family situations. Instead of making the children sit in an office, the Police Department has created an inviting, kid-friendly room in which the children can stay until they are picked up by relatives or child services personnel. The room is dedicated in the memory of Christopher Abercrombie, the five-year-old boy who was murdered along with his grandmother (Carol Abercrombie) and great-grandmother (Dolores McKim) in McKim’s home in July of 1996.

While winding through the labyrinth of hallways, we passed numerous offices and meeting rooms, evidence lockers, an evidence lab, the dispatch area, Emergency Management offices, and a wall dedicated to the retired dogs of the canine unit. We also came to a room on the upper level near the Chief’s office that serves as a sort of museum for the Police Department. In it are an old log book, various weapons confiscated from criminals, weapons used over the years by the Police, a list of the retired officers, and photos/details of the Police personnel killed in the line of duty over the years.

Many, many photos of various personnel line the walls of the Sheriff’s Office.  In the conference room are photos of most of the sheriffs, including one who, as it turns out, was the grandfather of one of my friends. Display cases with numerous Sheriff’s Office artifacts and some creative items made by prisoners in the jail (a cowboy hat made of toilet paper mache, for instance) line one hallway. Recognition/appreciation of personnel achievement was quite evident.

Coming up next: Dogs, Dispatch, DUIs, and Dents

Finding humor in misery

I am miserable. Now I know, in the whole scheme of things, there are people much worse off that I and that I could be in a much worse place as well. In my here and now, however, I am miserable. 

I have been fighting allergy issues ever since ragweed started to bloom a week or two ago. Late Friday night, I added a cold or a touch of the flu to the mix. Woke up Saturday still sneezy and itchy, but with a sore throat. "Drainage," I told myself as I let loose with a volley of sneezes, much like the rapid fire of an automatic weapon.

By mid-morning, however, I was back in bed, trying to get some much-craved sleep. That lasted a couple of hours and was much appreciated. When I got up, however, I felt as though a rhino snout was growing out of my face, my trigger for knowing that I have a rhinovirus (common cold). A quick look in the mirror, however, confirmed that my snout was my own and not that of a wild beast.

Throughout the day, the snout issue intensified as my nasal passages swelled to gigantic (so it seemed) proportions. My sore throat also worsened. I sucked on single-stick popsicles (the traditional cherry, grape, and orange ones). Those seemed to help a bit. I also was famished. Perhaps it was a side effect. If one has a rhino snout, perhaps one also has a rhino appetite!

In an attempt to flush all the nastiness out of my system, I drank lots of water, which had its own humorous side effects, especially when sneezing fits ensued. At one point, my 77-year-old mother asked me whether I wanted to use some of her incontinence pads. I thought I heard a chuckle in her voice when she asked, but surely that was not true. Mom wouldn’t mock me in my time of misery.

Late Saturday evening, I added Airborne to my misery-fighting arsenal. I’ve had good luck with it in the past. But the Airborne, anti-histamines, and all the water I drank caught up with me and every hour to hour and a half, I was up and in the bathroom. I also couldn’t seem to control my internal temp. I waffled between hot and cold all night. I think I slept maybe forty-five minutes to an hour between each journey down the hall, so I’m a little punchy this morning.

All in all, though, I think the misery is starting to subside. My snout does not feel as swollen and drainage is down to a trickle. My ETA for feeling human again is about the time I go to work on Monday. Thank goodness I had the weekend to fight this!

My friend, Cora, also is fighting a summer cold and wrote an ode to her situation. It is with your inspiration, Cora, that penned this little ditty:

Hot. Cold. Up. Down.
Rhino on my face.
Achy. Sneezy. Oops, I peed.
Bathroom is my place.

Music! Music! Music!

Those who know me well, know that I have eclectic music preferences. From classical to country, swing to disco, I like it.

Now that’s not to say that I like everything in each of those genres. For instance, I can’t stand Elvira or Swingin’. Ring My Bell makes me cringe. I detest the 1980s’, Don’t Worry Be Happy, yet I enjoy its 1960s counterpart, The 59^th Street Bridge Song.

Funny how music affects us.  Via our memories, music can transport us to a specific time in our lives or trigger a feeling from the distant past. Ninety percent of the time, I can make such a connection between a piece of music and something in my life.

I recently heard the opening music of Captain Kangaroo – my favorite show as a child – and immediately, albeit briefly, felt that excited anticipation I always felt as the show was beginning. A couple of months ago, as a part of its 60^th anniversary celebration, KWCH in Wichita aired the first couple Beverly Hillbillies episodes. There was a joy in hearing “Come and listen to a story ‘bout a man named Jed…” that I haven’t felt in years.

Marching band music is designed to generate excitement, yet there is a level of excitement created as the Salina Central drum corps marches in below Salina Stadium that I get nowhere else. Certain disco songs take me back to summer evenings during high school, when I was out with my friends and there was a bit of a cooling breeze buffeting our faces as we enjoyed life.

Another disco song, Kool and the Gang’s Celebration, takes me back to my Fort Hays days, specifically to DJs, a now defunct bar in Hays where one could “party with 900 of your closest friends.” (It was in an old Dillon’s store.) Then we thought it was fun. Now I would be concerned that I would have to wait at least a half hour to get into a restroom!

Sometimes I don’t understand why a song takes me back to a specific event. For instance, every time I hear Gerry Rafferty’s Baker Street, I flash back to Salina Stadium in May of 1978 when the class ahead of mine was graduating. I know Baker Street was released that year, but why it takes me back to that particular graduation is a mystery.

I always thought it odd that I so enjoyed Moolight Serenade until years later I learned that it was my parents’ “song.” Enough said.

Music and my mood are directly linked. Either music affects my mood or because of my mood, I listen to a particular type of music. Sometimes, I find that I need to recapture a particular feeling, so I listen to music my mind has linked to that feeling. I have put together playlists on Spotify to correspond to particular moods/feelings. What I listen to one day may not appeal to me the next. As I write this, I am listening to a ‘70s mix and it is fitting my mood quite nicely.

I don’t understand why some people insist on slamming others because of the music to which they listen. I’m not overly fond of hair bands, for instance, yet I have friends who are. And you can be quite sure that I will make no apologies for enjoying disco. To each his own, I say.

Music has an important role in our lives, at least it does in mine. Make time to enjoy some music and see where it takes you!

It's official. We're old!

A few days ago, I got together with some wonderful ladies...classmates from high school. One of the group had decided that we needed to get together (it had been a long time) and invited us to her home for a barbecue.

As usual, we had a grand time. We laughed, teased, ate, and laughed some more. We caught up on each other's lives, found out what children and grandchildren were doing, etc. At one point, the conversation moved to corns on feet, their removal, and how they sometimes come back. It was then that one of my friends pointed out that we sounded like a group of old ladies, to which we responded with cackling laughter.

We're all in our early 50s, except one who continues to be 29. In our minds' eyes, we're still in our 20s. Unfortunately, our bodies are not willing to go along with the charade. We have corns. We have aches. We don't heal as quickly as we used to and we can't do everything that we used to do.

But rather than dwell on the have-nots, each of us in our own way focuses on the haves in our lives. We have a wealth of experience, albeit not always pleasant, on which to draw when faced with decisions and dilemmas. We have shelter, clothing, and food. We have loving families. We have work and activities to occupy our time. We also have a loving group of friends who can brighten a day the moment they walk into the room.

Ladies, you know who you are. I thank you for being such a delightful part of my life, regardless of how old we are. I am truly blessed. For the rest of you, I hope you, too, have such a group in your lives to make the journey much more enjoyable.

Lucky 2013

It hardly seems like it was 13 years ago that people were freaking out about the world moving into the year 2000, but here we are in 2013. We survived 2000, just as we did the doom of the alleged Mayan calendar-predicted end of the world last month. And as of last check, I have yet to see zombies in my yard. I’m sure the doomsday preppers gave a healthy boost to the economy, though.

Now here we are in 2013. We have a whole new year, a whole new adventure. What will it bring? Who knows? What I do know is there are decisions we can make now that can help shape how the year goes. Of course, there will always be those unknowns that will affect our lives, but if we never made any decisions, never tried, our lives would be pathetic. I, for one, am deciding to not be pathetic.

I’ve never been one for making and adhering to New Year’s resolutions. Such have always seemed to be so black and white, so specific, and a fast-track to failure. For instance, a person resolves to lose 50 pounds by summer, but only loses 30. Despite the fact that the person is probably healthier, he/she has still failed at achieving the resolution.

So with that in mind, I have decided to develop resolutions that recognize achievement without being so absolute. Dealing with absolutes is like going through life with blinders on. There’s a whole big world of possibilities and if one goes through life without at least recognizing that there are other possibilities/options beyond one’s scope of knowledge, one stifles creativity and misses a great deal of life’s beauty and delight.

Here are my resolutions for 2013:

1. I will do my best to get in better shape. I sit in front of a computer much too much. I need to move more and make some better food choices.

2. I will read more and play online games less. Playing online games is a great way for me to relax. But I can relax and expand my mind by reading more.

3. I will do a better job of letting those who are important to me know just how important they are.

4. I will do my best to rid my life of unnecessary drama. There are those persons in my life who insist on creating drama, despite knowing that I detest unnecessary drama. Much of it is to get attention, as said persons constantly have to have attention, but some also is to create a situation in which those persons can then swoop in and save the day. Either way, I’ve had enough and am going to do my best to get that crap out of my life.

5. I will do my best to cut loose unhealthy, dysfunctional relationships. Enough said.

6. I will do my best to develop healthy, meaningful relationships.

7. I will do my best to remain open to the possibility of options becoming available in the future and not restricting myself to only the changes mentioned above.

I hope each of you who reads this has a wonderful 2013! I plan to do so. Happy New Year!

Not all of the 70,000 were cheering for the injury

After reading this story and watching the video (http://www.kctv5.com/story/19761458/is-this-the-cheering-chiefs-winston-blamed-fans-for), I think Chiefs' Eric Winston  #ericwinston needs to apologize to all of the Chiefs fans who were NOT cheering for Matt Cassel getting hurt during the Chiefs' game against the Ravens on Sunday (October 7, 2012).

I agree with Winston that regardless of what one thinks about a player, one should not cheer when that person gets injured. In a postgame interview, however, Winston called out the 70,000 people who were in the stadium, and sparked a national media frenzy that, for the most part, is erroneously critical of Chiefs fans. I have friends who were at the game -- and a part of the 70,000 -- and I know they did not cheer when Cassel went down.

Winston later tweeted that "Obviously i know not all 70k were cheering. And please don't act like the cheering started when Quinn came in." That's as close to an apology as Chiefs fans who did not cheer Cassel's injury are likely to get from Winston, as he later tweeted that "I've said what I wanted to say and i won't be talking about it any further."

I'm sure there were some fans who exhibited less-than-human behavior and cheered when Cassel went down. That sort of behavior is despicable. And, I agree with Winston that the cheering didn't start when Brady Quinn entered the game. It is obvious from the raw game footage posted by Kansas City's KCTV5, however, that much of the cheering was for Cassel being able to get up and walk off the field. (He wasn't carted off as the boys on ESPN's Monday Night pregame show claimed, making it seem even more heinous and sensational. #espnnfl) Dewayne Bowe can even be seen encouraging the fans to cheer.

So, what can we take away from this? Several things:

1. Another human being was injured on the field of Arrowhead stadium. My thoughts and prayers are with Matt Cassel and his family.

2. One of Cassel's linemen cared enough to publicly call out those in the stadium who were cheering Cassel's injury. Unfortunately, he also called out thousands innocent fans who did nothing more than cheer for an injured player who was able to get up and walk off the field. In the process, Winston further irritated a Chiefs fan base that already is extremely disgruntled with the direction the team has taken in the last few years. Chiefs fans have put up with a lot of disappointment in the years since the Chiefs won the Super Bowl, yet each year, they come back full of hope, only to be disappointed once again. The dissatisfaction has built to such an extreme this year that KC Star sports folks are writing columns critical of Chiefs' management (rarely heard of in KC), Chiefs fans are becoming increasingly more vocal, and prior to Sunday's game, someone flew a plane with a banner over Arrowhead. The banner noted that Chiefs fans deserved better and called for GM Scott Pioli to be fired and Cassel to be benched. Now I doubt that Winston's emotional outburst after the game will cause Chiefs fans to boycott future games, but the Chiefs' relationship with their fans is reaching a tipping point, and if fans don't continue to support the Chiefs, from where will the revenue come to pay players' salaries?

3. Once again, national media jumped on a sensational story without bothering to check out or present all the facts.

Fine in my 50s

A couple of years ago, I wrote that I was enjoying my 40s much more than any other age, primarily because of experience and wisdom. Now that I am tackling my fifty-second year, I’d say the notions of experience and wisdom continue to play an important role in my enjoying my age/life.

I have, however, added a new tool to my age/life enjoyment collection: the realization that I don’t need to get all worked up about people or situations I cannot change. When I was younger and someone lied about me or portrayed me in an untrue, negative light, I would get angry and want to get even. In my mind, those who had wronged me had to pay for what they had done to me. (Sort of an Old Testament take on interactions with others.)  That kind of behavior was not healthy and continued to feed off itself, festering much like a boil in need of a good lancing.

I’m not quite sure when that realization sunk in. It wasn’t because of reading a self-help book. I abhor such wastes of trees and find annoying and pathetic people who continually pepper their conversations with self-help gobbledygook in an effort to appear more intelligent than they really are. (Just be yourself! … but that is a topic for another post.) It wasn’t as dramatic as God speaking to me from a burning bush.  I can’t pinpoint any particular “ah-ha moment.” The notion that I didn’t need to get all worked up just gradually became a part of my being.

I haven’t yet achieved the Mother Teresa level of loving and forgiving those who have behaved badly toward me. It still bothers me when someone lies about me or falsely accuses me, but once I have stated my side of it (if I am given the chance to do so), I am done with it. I find peace in the fact that all parties involved know the truth and God knows the truth and will take care of the wrong-doers in His own good time.

Some will say “what about those who believe the lies of others?” I have no control over them, either. I don’t hate them, but you can bet I will be cautious of them in the future. My only consolation is that someday, God will show them the truth.

As I was writing this, I realized that I was wearing my tie-dyed peace sign shirt. I bought it because it was colorful and I liked the way it looked. Ironic that I am wearing it while writing this post. Perhaps the shirt is an indication of how I should end this post. So for now, I will leave you with peace.