I will never betray my badge,
my integrity, my character,
or the public trust.
I will always have
the courage to hold myself
and others accountable for our actions.
I will always uphold the constitution
my community3 and the agency I serve.
~Oath of Honor - Police Force~
******
Today I'm grateful for:ALL the children being OK.
JUNE being OK.
other mothers being as pissed off as I was. I was not alone.
NOT doing something stupid. The imaginary News bulletin in my head helped "Local concerned mother arrested. Film at 11"
feeling better about being sick. When you are driving down your street and you see 3 school busses full of children surrounded by smashed up cars & police and you KNOW these are the busses going to your Childs school something happens to you. All blood drains from your body and pools in your feet, your head gets kinda foggy as you scan the wreckage for ANY sign of your child and you just PRAY the traffic will move so you can pull up to a police officer and find out if your child is safe. EVERYTHING outside of knowing that ceases to exist. All sickness is forgotten, all annoyances of minor morning infractions gone, concerns over world peace war and politics explode into nothingness and you fail to notice you've stopped breathing. My child is OK and I'm OK with being sick. Again.
sleepy puppies. This little warm spot in my lap has soothed my frayed nerves.
my missed day of work and the current bout of the lurgy only costing me $85.
Netflix. I reactivated my account. For the cost of renting 3 movies from Blockbuster, I can rent unlimited movies IN BLU-RAY AND watch unlimited movies on my PC instantly. Totally rad dude. I've been watching old movies all day. THE SAME movies Blockbuster now wants’ to charge me $5 to rent. Not a bright Idea Mr. Blockbuster CEO. Charge ME $5 to rent old movies? I don't think so...
knowing there are good cops out there. Even if I happen to be harboring a grudge against one. OK, two.
This is after the clean-up.
You can't see the smashed SUV
embeded into the front of the bus.
I have always harbored a great deal of admiration and respect for Police Officers. Yup, even when I'm getting speeding tickets. OK, maybe not AS I'm getting the ticket, but you feel me right?
Before 911 when it was trendy to hate the "Pigs" I didn't. It may be because a good number of family members were Police, it could be because it was just the way I was raised "Respect Authority Beth Ann" but whatever it was, I respected the uniform.
Before today, there was one Police Officer I loathed. She was the one, upon arresting my daughter on what has to be the worst day of my life, turned to me and said "Now you want to make her OUR problem?" Today, I added another to my list. It is the officer you see in the above photo.
Today I'm home sick from work. As I was leaving to go to the clinic I passed June as she walked to the bus stop. As I passed her I rolled down the car window and was about to wave and shout "Love you!" but I stopped myself. She is at that age where she embarrasses very easy so I decided not to. About 2 hours later, as I was inching my way forward through traffic on my own street I began to regret that.
As I inched my way forward all I could see were flashing lights at first. Moving forward some the top of several school busses became clear. That's when my palms began to sweat and I began to pray. As I came up to the accident I saw a green SUV embedded into the front of one bus, a second bus behind that one with kids hanging out the windows shouting to their concerned parents. The principle and transportation secretary were there (I knew the principle, I was told later who the other woman was) and just behind the 2nd school bus was a totaled black pick-up truck. Behind that and parked in the grass was a 3rd empty school bus. I knew by the time of day, these were the busses for the Jr. High. The Jr. High kids are the last pick-ups of the morning. They go in the latest and get out the latest.
As I roll up to the police officer, hands shaking, tears in my eyes, I say "My daughter is on that bus!" his reply is "That's nice, now move along." Um, wait...what? "Move along!" in a state of disbelief I move along. I figure if I stop, I'm going to block already jammed traffic so I drive the 3 blocks home and walk back to the scene.
As I'm walking back I'm getting more and more scared and more and more pissed off. This News reel playing in my head:
Enraged mother arrested, film at 11: "Mother of local tween arrested after sporking a police officer who failed to let her get to her child involved in a school bus accident. Eye whiteness say she was like a ninja armed with a standard plastic spork. *insert snippet of local yokel redneck chewing gum with his mouth open* "Um, yeah, one minute she was walking up to the officer all polite like asking if her youngun was OK and the next two state troopers were pulling her off the cop, er I mean officer. She got him good too. They had to haul him away in an ambulance."
As I reach the corner where other parents were gathered a very nice stranger asked me "You have a child on one of those?" "Yes ma'am I do" she says "Don't bother asking any of them, they are not releasing any information. I'm on the phone with the school. Give my your child’s name, I'll ask if she's OK" Let me pause right here for a moment and state, for the record, this woman saved a life this morning. Because if I had walked up to that cop, the SAME cop that said to me earlier "that's nice, now move along" , and he had said anything but "Yes Ma'am, you go right ahead" I would have a) killed him and been arrested b) attempted to kill him and been arrested c) been tasered in a thwarted attempt to kill him d) film at 11
I can report with great joy that all children arrived late, but safely to school unharmed. That what appeared to be a green SUV imbedded into the front of the bus, was actually the green SUV that smashed into the back of the black pick-up truck then pushed by the car behind into the front of the bus. It took us (the gathered frantic parents) 40 minutes to find out that all of our children were safe, that the 3rd bus in the grass was there to transport the children from the one remaining bus (they let the 2nd bus go while I was parking my car and fantasizing about sporking a police officer) to school. All the information gathered was gathered by the group of parents. At no time did any police officer bother to speak with us or let us know what was going on.
To say I am profoundly disappointed in our local police department would be an understatement. I am however, working hard at releasing my grudge against the cop and the police department as a whole. I will release my desire for revenge and trust that Karma will balance the debt in her own unique and fitting way and remind myself that as a whole, the Police are good, caring and brave people who protect and serve with honor.
Netflix=Genius. Play on my laziness *and* my thriftiness? WIN!
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