Actual Call:
After clearing a call at a gas station I got coffee & a pack of gum. A woman behind me who I immediately noticed had a scarf on her head & had a little boy no older than 6 or 7 beside her wearing a ball cap turned backwards. She said "Sir my son earned his own money doing chores & he wants to use it to pay for your stuff". I looked at him & he was so excited & walked up & laid his $10 bill on the counter. He himself had a drink & candy & I said "Now I get to buy yours" & he looked at his mom & excitedly said "OK!".
I took him to my cruiser & gave him a hat & a sticker badge & then learned he is battling cancer & his mom shaved her head in support of him. I can't tell you how touched I was that this little boy with all he is going through still had room in his heart to want to do something nice for me. Sometimes encounters like these happen & make being a cop not such a bad gig 🙂❤️👮♂️
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Two years ago today, a suicide bomber killed 13 service members.
Two years ago, after getting off a tearful call with my buddy Mike, I decided to run for Congress.
I vowed I would fight neocons who get us into war.
To those 13 & their families, thank you for your service.
Officer Kenneth Knox saved this baby’s life by dislodging a chunk of cereal lodged in her windpipe. Her father made this officer her Godfather after. Can we start making this content go viral?
I arrived at the address and honked the horn. After waiting a few minutes I honked again. Since this was going to be my last ride of my shift I thought about just driving away, but instead I put the car in park and walked up to the door and knocked.. 'Just a minute', answered a frail, elderly voice. I could hear something being dragged across the floor.
After a long pause, the door opened. A small woman in her 90's stood before me. She was wearing a print dress and a pillbox hat with a veil pinned on it, like somebody out of a 1940's movie.
By her side was a small nylon suitcase. The apartment looked as if no one had lived in it for years. All the furniture was covered with sheets.
There were no clocks on the walls, no knickknacks or utensils on the counters. In the corner was a cardboard box filled with photos and glassware.
'Would you carry my bag out to the car?' she said. I took the suitcase to the cab, then returned to assist the woman.
She took my arm and we walked slowly toward the curb.
She kept thanking me for my kindness. 'It's nothing', I told her.. 'I just try to treat my passengers the way I would want my mother to be treated.'
'Oh, you're such a good boy,’ she said. When we got in the cab, she gave me an address and then asked, 'Could you drive
through downtown?'
'It's not the shortest way,' I answered quickly..
'Oh, I don't mind,' she said. 'I'm in no hurry. I'm on my way to a hospice.’
I looked in the rear-view mirror. Her eyes were glistening. 'I don't have any family left,' she continued in a soft voice.. ‘The doctor says I don't have very long.' I quietly reached over and shut off the meter.
'What route would you like me to take?' I asked.
For the next two hours, we drove through the city. She showed me the building where she had once worked as an elevator operator.
We drove through the neighborhood where she and her husband had lived when they were newlyweds. She had me pull up in front of a furniture warehouse that had once been a ballroom where she had gone dancing as a girl.
Sometimes she'd ask me to slow in front of a particular building or corner and would sit staring into the darkness, saying nothing.
As the first hint of sun was creasing the horizon, she suddenly said, 'I'm tired. Let's go now'.
We drove in silence to the address she had given me. It was a low building, like a small convalescent home, with a driveway that passed under a portico.
Two orderlies came out to the cab as soon as we pulled up. They were solicitous and intent, watching her every move.
They must have been expecting her.
I opened the trunk and took the small suitcase to the door. The woman was already seated in a wheelchair.
'How much do I owe you?' She asked, reaching into her purse.
'Nothing,' I said.
'You have to make a living,' she answered.
'There are other passengers,' I responded.
Almost without thinking, I bent and gave her a hug. She held onto me tightly.
'You gave an old woman a little moment of joy,' she said. 'Thank you.'
I squeezed her hand, and then walked into the dim morning light.. Behind me, a door shut. It was the sound of the closing of a life..
I didn't pick up any more passengers that shift. I drove aimlessly lost in thought. For the rest of that day,I could hardly talk. What if that woman had gotten an angry driver, or one who was impatient to end his shift? What if I had refused to take the run, or had honked once, then driven away?
On a quick review, I don't think that I have done anything more important in my life.
We're conditioned to think that our lives revolve around great moments.
But great moments often catch us unaware-beautifully wrapped in what others may consider a small one.
PEOPLE MAY NOT REMEMBER EXACTLY WHAT YOU DID, OR WHAT YOU SAID ~BUT~ THEY WILL ALWAYS REMEMBER HOW YOU MADE THEM FEEL.
🙏🏼🥰✝️
Our faith is not in religion; our faith is in God. A hardy, daring faith that believes God will do what is right, every time. And that God will do what it takes—whatever it takes—to bring his children home. https://t.co/KAOuxjnuUU
As I sat in the back of the briefing room @WhiteHouse and was not called on by @PressSec Karine Jean-Pierre, I learned something that fundamentally changed my life, even as they were writing me warning letters, and other reporters were using the opportunity to slander me on television and their news outlets.
You see, we go through life thinking that we are better than others, cannot make the same mistakes they have made, and are superior in thinking and can handle our emotions better. We tell people we have a Ph.D. or are a lawyer, a professor, or a genius. We open an account on Twitter or LinkedIn and add all of our intimidating qualifications, thinking that because of all that, people would hire us, follow us, and automatically like or respect us or even engage with our content. However, when we tweet, we are surprised when they don't.
In life, we take pictures with the famous, the powerful, and the people on television, and we share them on social media. In the White House, we call on reporters we believe work for better news outlets, crack jokes with them, remember their birthdays, and even when they don't raise their hand, we will call on them; we act friendly and respectful. To others, we ignore them, don't greet them, and don't call on them because we believe they are not as great as others.
Or we receive questions all the time, and we become entitled; we now believe that we are better than those who are not called on, we attack them when they try to get their questions in, we remind them that our publication has more readers than theirs, we have become entitled.
We do all these things only to realize we are not connecting with the people. When we tweet, they do not respond; when we run for election, they pick someone else, someone we believe is inferior to us. The people see the level of entitlement, arrogance, the disrespect, and turn their backs on us.
They show you that most people do not care how much you know until they know how much you care. They judge you by how you treat that little guy in the briefing room, not by how you favor the already powerful ones. They connect with your content when you show them respect, when you are open-minded, and when they can see that you also want to learn from them through their comments and are not Mr. Know it All.
That new knowledge has transformed me. When I tweet, I reach millions of people, and thousands of people comment because the people see that open mind, that willingness to learn and connect with them, that deep desire to drive meaningful conversations.
You know, I have lived long enough and got white hair by the way, to know that whether here in Washington DC, where I am writing this, or over there, wherever you're reading it, the truth remains that to become a better human being and connect with the people, you have to drop your false mask of superiority.
Satellite images from the College of DuPage Meteorology Department show that—on the 2nd of June—the fires that erupted in Quebec, Canada, all started at the exact same time.
Source: https://t.co/6CJ8vCeEKM
For more content like this, visit: https://t.co/lCHv5M6RdL
#ClimateScam #CanadianWildfires #CanadianFires