Mr. Policeman Or Officer I Maybe...

I serve out here each and every day as I walk my beat, I protect the homes and business of others that never even bother to get to know my name...they see only the name (Officer)... which comes just before my real name. They never see my real name, just a badge and a uniform and the last person they like to see, depending on their game? They never ever see my real name "James Taylor" which was given to me by someone who loved me way before I even thought about patrolling our streets in DC...what everyone else seems to take for granted every day of their lives as they leave out of their homes to go to work or play... They fail to see I'm probably all that maybe standing between them and the predators that walk our streets both night and day? No, I'm nothing special, just a mere man... even a good policemen can fall from grace…we get angry with our kids…we even fight and argue with the ones we love…and we put our legs in our pants one hole at a time too, the same as you do. We flush our toilet the same way and it goes to the same place as yours… and spins into an abyss seen by few. I pray to the same God that most of you all do…The only difference between me and some of you? I can’t look the other way when I hear a child pleading for his Momma to stop beating him... and I can’t look the other way when Mr. Pookeys comes home from the fish market where he works all day…and when he is mad about the cuts that he gets on his hands and the fish gut smell that just won’t go away...so he slaps his poor wife Mrs. Pookeys who just picked the wrong day to have complained about Mr. Pookeys pay? So the next time you encounter me as I'm walking my beat? As I walk pass by you and head down 7th St and wearing what appears to be a frown on my face? As you start to spread your lips to tell me to smile? And say, "it can’t be all that bad, Mr. Policeman?" I think I would say back to you... Hey, my friend it’s not about being a cop that makes me into this police officer that you see… It’s the fact that I chose to be Officer Taylor today, but it could have went just about anyway...I could be that drunk or a wife beater or even the thief down the street? So, the next time you see your local policeman on the beat? Just look him in the eye and tell him with a sincere heart...I know you could have made the choice to have been any of those people I see out here every day? But I want to thank you Officer James Taylor, I’m sure glad to see you did chose to work on our streets and make the world a much safer place for me!