A solemn promise, sacred trust ...
No longer hallowed ground or honor.
Onsite Public Relations Officer & Asst. Curator, 1994-2004
[MT Police Service Veteran]
IN MEMORIUM:
Lt. W.R. Abbott,
Onsite Public Relations Officer, 1992-1998
[MT Corrections Service Veteran]
“Are right and wrong convertible terms, dependent upon popular opinion?”
-William Lloyd Garrison (1805-1879)
What’s right is right,
and what’s wrong is wrong;
and it’s not that hard to tell the difference.
By the MLEM’s own Bylaws - the memorial is a Sacred Trust, entrusted to each of Montana’s law enforcement associations and their willingly appointed representatives who serve on the MLEM Board of Directors. From the VERY beginning of the Montana Law Enforcement Officers Memorial entrusting to Montana’s law enforcement community, the stated intent was that the museum and memorial NEVER be given or left into any other hands but its own law enforcement community. Abandoning law enforcement’s memorial into the hands of non-law enforcement is the fatal step to forgetting Montana’s fallen by their very own ... all over again! But, now, even worse so....
the more blood, the more horror there is, the more imposing they are, the more picturesque, so to speak,
but there are crimes that are shameful, disgraceful, all horror aside, so to speak, even far too ungracious..."
— Fyodor Dostoyevsky (Demons, 1873)
The Tomb of the Unknowns (also known as Tomb of the Unknown Soldier) is guarded 24-hours a day, 365-days a year, and in any weather by all-volunteer sentinels. Would be sentinels memorize 7-pages of Arlington National Cemetery history. This information must be recited verbatim in order to earn a "walk." Every sentinel is tested to earn the privilege. The sentinel, who views this as an honor, marches 21-steps behind the Tomb, turns, faces East for 21-seconds, turns and faces north for 21-seconds, then takes 21-steps back. 21 was chosen because it symbolizes the highest military honor that can be bestowed: a 21-gun salute. Following the "walk," the sentinel sharply takes up position between the visitors and the Tomb to signify that the sentinel stands between the Tomb and any possible threat or otherwise dishonor during his watch. To them, the Tomb and Honor of their Fallen is certainly no tourist attraction or something for 'someone else' to care about.
They get it!
For decades, all new chiefs of the U.S. Coast Guard by committed tradition and honor visit and have their photograph taken at Alexander Hamilton’s Tomb in never forgetting their founder, their fore-father. They could be content with their graduation photograph at the academy; they could for sake of their own convenience forget about Hamilton and abandon his tomb; but...
They get it!
Across our border to the north, there is a standard curriculum of police cadet classes which requires them to dress Class A, visit their predecessor-officers' memorial, contemplate and learn about those who have been before them, to personally keep their memories in honor.
They get it!
Over all the years that Ret-Lt. William R. Abbott and I served at the MLEM/Officers Memorial, how many tears flowed down the faces of even perfect strangers (not to mention officer family survivors) who had no connection at all to Montana’s fallen. In one such visit, made by an East Coast officer, wiping tears from his eyes, said: “I’m not from Montana, and don’t even know anyone remembered here; but they’re all my brothers.”
They all get it!
When will the 'new generation' of Montana Police really be cops?
When will these men really be men?
What does it take to pierce their hearts and move them to righteous anger and care?
They just don't get it and won't admit that they don't.
Or perhaps actually, they just don't care.
“If given the choice between Righteousness and Peace, I choose Righteousness.”
―Theodore Roosevelt
"A man has honor if he holds himself to an ideal of conduct though it is inconvenient, unprofitable, or dangerous to do so."
--Walter Lippmann
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Grave robbing is back
POLICE CRACK DOWN
Grave robbing has become an above-ground affair.
Gone are the days when enterprising thieves would dig up an old grave and pillage for gold teeth and rings. Today, it’s mostly the bronze markers and flower vases that draw their attention.
Rising scrap metal prices, coupled with the lagging economy, have triggered a string of cemetery thefts both locally and across the nation.
“I can’t think of anything lower,” said David Evans, general manager for Valhalla Gardens of Memory in Belleville. “Nothing’s worse than stealing from the dead.”
