Mourning with Arizona – Part II
Picture Courtesy of ALLVOICES


To serve; no matter the profession, is an unselfish act. Wanting to help others; whether you are in the medical field, the teaching field, religion, law enforcement, the military, etc., you clearly have a desire to improve the world and the lives of those around you. Politicians very well could be viewed as noble people too, but sadly, they don’t often get the credit they deserve.
Like most parents, my desire is that my children will grow up to have healthy, happy lives and pursue careers they love and that they can stand behind…but at the same time it worries me.
My son wants to be in law enforcement.
He plays the part well, informing us of speed limits (yes, all the time), letting us know when someone is illegally parked in a handi-cap spot, and when somebody has apparently littered he expresses his disgust and lets us know, matter-of- factly, that there is a law against that.
(Except for cleaning his room, lol, he likes everything done by the book... I admire him.)
My son does not know about the shootings. I feel he is too young to discuss it.
Besides I'm wondering…
Where is the line between informing our children of what’s going on in the world and instilling fear?
Informing our children of current events like 9/11, the Arizona massacre and even tragic events that have happened in other cities across the nation (including my own) can do two things:
1.    Expose the truth about what we are facing as a nation and show them that we need help standing tall and standing strong.  Teaching them that we need to band together and fight this awful reality the best way we know how, most likely inspiring them to choose a noble career like one of those mentioned above..

              OR

2.     It  can scare the living day lights out of them!

 Our children, no doubt, must be the change we need in this world, but for that to happen, our fear must not show. We must not make them leery of taking the job, and that’s hard.
As a parent, watching your child make the choice to serve, knowing their life will always be on the line as long as they wear those shoes, or that uniform, must be difficult.
I really do want my son to go out and pursue his dream of improving the world. I want him to work hard to fight the war against criminals and terrorists…because Lord knows we need people like him.
But at the same time I’m scared.
Right now he is only six and he may change his mind several times before settling into his actual career, but, for as long as he’s been able to play pretend, he’s been a police officer. And since the summer, when we went to court for our custody trial and he met sheriffs, he’s said he would like to be one.
Either way, we know what those jobs entail…and we know the dangers.
I cannot be afraid.
When something like this happens in Arizona, I cannot instill fear in my children.
Believe it or not, my son’s name is Justice, and I took no part in guiding him towards a job in law enforcement. Although, unbeknownst to him, his name was chosen in the wake of September 11th.
At the time, we were choosing names for our unborn baby. And it turned out, it was a she. If my daughter was a boy back in September of 2011, she would’ve been a Justice.  
It wasn’t until 2 ½ years later that the boy came, and the name Justice stayed with us.
On 9/11, I think all U.S. citizens were quite crushed and very angry that somebody would take such drastic measures to pain our nation and its people.  It was such a senseless horrible crime; we all wanted to become part of the solution. America was strong, and it was evident in the things we did to show we wanted to make a difference.  We announced that we would not be defeated, we found strength and hope, then and we joined hands in recovering from the pain and anguish. From large efforts to the small, we all envisioned better days to come. Even such things as naming our children, with the hopes that someday they would grow up to be part of the solution.

So with that being said, why would I dream of standing in my son’s way, when inevitably he is becoming who I always imagined he’d be? 
Hope for the future…
Christina Taylor was a gift...
Why she was born on 9/11 and why she was taken now in the manner that she was, I'm not sure. It doesn't make much sense... We are all still left with the same questions.

Why she's gone? I can only assume that God needed her more. (Her father mentioned that she might already be working in Heaven giving orders.)

Why the significant birth date and tragic death?
Maybe because we needed to be jolted. Maybe because we needed to see that as time has passed from 9/11, when life has gone on, and the events of that day seem so far away, Arizona's shootings would be a harsh reminder to us to never forget the horrific events of that day, and how following it, our emotions were so high and so strong, that we had no fear. Only conviction - that we could, and would, stand together and beat this type of cruelty.

      I believe that there's so much more good in this world than bad...

Christina's parents proved it when they saved a little girls life by donating their dead daughter's organs.
                                                          ….to be continued…

Truly,
Amber

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