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I am so shocked that this “Tear Drop” 9/11 memorial exists right across from NYC and yet we do not hear about it. This is a 100-foot tall monument given to the U.S. back in 2006 by the Russian people in memory of all those that lost their lives on 9/11. The breaking in the cracked facade forms the shape of the two towers. The giant suspended tear drop symbolizes all the tears the world had shed in response to this terrifying day. Absolutely beautiful. It is located in Bayonne, New Jersey, which is just on the other side of the water near the Statue of Liberty. It is a shame that such a beautiful memorial is given barely any attention and I think it should be shown every year around this time. Feel free to share this post to your walls!

This is me at 21 years old. This is the day I graduated from the Detroit police academy at 4:00pm, went home and took a couple hour nap, woke up at 9:30 that night and reported to my first tour of duty at the 12th Precinct for midnight shift. Look at that smile on my face. I couldn’t have been more excited, more proud. Armed with my dad’s badge that he wore for 25 years on my chest, one of my mom’s sergeant stripe patches in my pocket, my lucky $2.00 bill tucked into my bulletproof vest, a gun I was barely old enough to purchase bullets for on my hip and enough naive courage for a small army, I headed out the door…my mom snapped this photo on my way. 

The next 17 years would bring plenty of shed blood, black eyes, torn ligaments, stab wounds, stitches, funerals, a head injury, permanent and irreparable nerve damage, 5 ruptured discs, some charming PTSD and depression issues and a whole lot of heartache. They brought missed Christmases with my family, my absence from friends’ birthday get-togethers, pricey concert tickets that were forfeited at the last minute because of a late call and many sleepless nights. 

I’ve laid in wet grass on the freeway for three hours watching a team of burglars and orchestrating their apprehension, I’ve dodged gunfire while running down a dark alley in the middle of the night chasing a shooting suspect, I’ve argued with women who were too scared to leave their abusive husbands until they realized they had to or they would end up dead. I’ve peeled a dead, burned baby from the front of my uniform shirt, I’ve felt the pride of putting handcuffs on a serial rapist and I’ve cried on the chest of and kissed the cheek of my dead friend, coworker and academy classmate even though it was covered in his own dried blood and didn’t even look like him from all the bullet holes. I know what a bullet sounds like when it’s whizzing past your ear, a few inches away, I know what the sound of a Mother’s shrilling scream is like when she finds out her son has been killed in the middle of the street and I know what it’s like to have to tell a wife and mother of 3 that her husband was killed in a car accident while on his way home from work. 

Smells, pictures, sounds and sights are burned and engrained into our minds…things we can never forget, no matter how hard we try; things that haunt our sleep at night and our thoughts during the day; things that we volunteered to deal with so that you don’t have to. Things I don’t want my sister, little cousins or YOU to even have to KNOW about. 

I never once went to work thinking, “I’m gonna beat someone tonight.”; “Hmmm…I think I’m gonna kill someone tonight.” I DID, however, go to work every night, knowing that I was going to do the best I could to keep good people safe, even if that meant that I died doing so.

We ALL need to start being more understanding and compassionate toward one another. Violence doesn’t cure violence and hate doesn’t cure hate. I’ve seen and experienced both sides of the spectrum since I left the PD and I get it. I truly do. But this all has to stop. 

Are cops perfect? No. Are there bad cops? Yes. But please…understand that the vast majority of police are good, loving, well intentioned family people. They have husbands and wives and children and parents and pets and cousins and mortgages and electric bills and lawns that need cutting, just like you. They have hearts and consciences. They aren’t robots, they’re not machines and they just want to help keep the wolves away from the sheep. I KNOW there’s people who don’t deserve to wear the badge but they’re SO VERY few and far between. It breaks my heart to see all this hatred and anger flying around. All it’s doing is encouraging more of the same.

  If you’ve read this far, thank you for listening. I’m not gonna sit here and tell you that if you hate or don’t support one side or the other, to unfriend me and never speak to me again…I hope those are the people who come straight TO me. Because I’ll be more than happy to hug you and pray or meditate with you. I’ll be more than happy to listen to your concerns and let you vent and empathize with your feelings. But then I’ll encourage you to help me find a solution to end all this nonsense because if we’re not part of the solution, we’re part of the problem. Love to all of you. ALL OF YOU. We’re all SO much better than this.

The hate we have for those with the balls to die for us shows we take things for granted in first world America, and it’s fucking disgusting. Somewhere out there, a cop is being shot and killed, but on here, he’s being martyred as a “pig” just for the acts of the few sadists in blue.

And that’s not right.

Not all blacks are criminals.

Not all whites are racists.

Not all veterans are sadists.

President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron together planted the tree, taken from the site of the historic World War I fight in northern France, in the White House garden on Monday.

“We will put in his garden because that for me is a great symbol of this long-term relationship,” Macron told Fox News on the eve of his three-day official visit to the United States.

The tree from the Belleau Wood grew from the earth where the blood of your soldiers was spilled to defend France. 

June 1 marks the 100th anniversary of the famous Battle of Belleau Wood. It was started as an offensive by the Germans heading toward Paris, and ended three bloody weeks later with the Marines halting the Germans.

It was at that battle where legend has it that the Marines got the nickname “Devil Dogs” from the Germans for their ferocious defense.

Red Skelton, during the presentation of his CBS television show on the night of January 14, 1969, read his version of the “Pledge of Allegiance” to the flag. He immediately received 200,000 requests for it, he recorded it and the record was widely played throughout the country. Skelton had learned his adaptation of the pledge as a schoolboy in Vincennes, Indiana. The teacher felt his pupils were bored reciting the pledge every morning (times haven’t changed much), so he decided to explain to his students what the lines they were mumbling meant.

“I"— me, an individual, a committee of one.

“Pledge"— dedicate all of my worldly goods to give without self-pity.

“Allegiance” — my love and devotion.

“To the Flag” — our standard, Old Glory, a symbol of freedom. Wherever she waves, there is respect because your loyalty has given her dignity that shouts freedom is everybody’s job.

“Of the united” — that means that we have all come together

“States” — individual communities that have united into 50 great states. Fifty communities with pride and dignity and purpose, all divided by imaginary boundaries, yet common purpose and that’s love for country.

“Of America"— Home of the Brave and Land of the Free.

“And to the Republic” — a state in which limited Sovereign Power is granted to representatives chosen by the people who govern. And government is the people and it’s representatives chosen by the people who govern. And government is the people and it’s from the people to the leaders, not from the leaders to the people.

“For which it stands” — flying proudly, never touching the ground or displayed below other flags.

“One nation under GOD” — meaning so blessed by GOD.

“Indivisible” — incapable of being divided.

“With Liberty” — which is freedom and the RIGHTS or power to live one’s own life without threats or fear of some sort of retaliation.

“And justice” — the principle or quality of dealing fairly with others.

“For all” — which means it’s as much your country as it is mine.

When rendering the pledge of allegiance, persons should stand at attention, face the flag, and, if in uniform, salute, or otherwise place the RIGHT hand over the heart. Persons wearing the caps of veterans’ service organizations, such as the Disabled American Veterans, are expected to salute. Others, such as Boy or Girl Scouts in uniform, should render respect to the flag in accordance with the traditions of the organization whose uniform they are wearing.

This is the pledge of allegiance I still hold valuable!

Early heads up, folks.

UPS drivers have the most interesting photos to share. 

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