Lazy cop or lazy American?

Last week I had the privilege of attending a union recruiting function at our police department, and it left me with a strange question, Are Americans lazy, even when it comes to their own future?

I know there has been a thousand articles written since the election about the American sense of entitlement which reared it ugly head in a very public way, but I really wanted to believe that Americans, as a whole, were not content to sit and wait for success to come to them. Apparently I held on to this faith despite mountains of evidence to the contrary.

A young officer was supposed to tell the class of new recruits why they should join his union over a another, and the vehicle chose to deliver his message was a personal story. He told the class that he “got into some trouble” over an excessive force complaint and needed union help. He expressed dismay at the situation, after all, in his words he “had beat up people all the time and never got in trouble for it…” He continued to say, “I needed help and couldn’t find it, or maybe help couldn’t find me.” He went on to tell of how he was forced to contact an old police sergeant who gave him advice on which lawyer to call, and how this may have saved his career. I was so bewildered with the few things I quoted above that I almost missed him reiterate this point, in these words, “lets just say help didn’t find me.”

This left me with such a bad taste in my mouth that I asked my partner what he thought about it and he dismissed the whole thing as a young dumb cop spouting off. I on the other hand couldn’t shake the feeling this guy was the epitome of America right now. He stood there with simple arrogance and proclaimed that help simply did not find him. As if the help he needed was entitled to him because he existed and that was all. His phrase made me reflect on the millions of people who proclaimed in one voice on November 4th that help needed to come to them.

This ideal goes against everything I have ever been taught about being an American, let alone a police officer. Americans pull themselves up by the bootstraps and carry on. Even when times are hard, we use the goal of the American Dream to fuel our drive and we move forward. I know because I have been there. When my wife and I were married we had a broken car, very modest income, and one couch. We decided a long time ago that we were going to succeed without handouts or bailouts. Our journey is far from over, but we wake up everyday and press onward, never expecting anything to just “come our way”. That was the way I was raised, I knew of no other alternative than success at all costs.

And as far as being a cop is concerned, since when do we allow fate to dictate anything? I have seen people survive 8 bullet wounds to the body, I know people who were left for dead and came back to be stronger than ever. These people did not wait for help to come to them they literally pulled themselves up, sometimes with one arm, and survive.

And perhaps that is the answer to this plaguing question; there are still some of us out there. There are still people who wake up with nothing, and work all day to get to that somewhere someday. These people will rise to the top, or die trying, but will never be content to wait for “it” to come to them.

So maybe some Americans are lazy and have taken the easy road, but that’s all right. Because for every ten people who stand by waiting, there is one who is ready to take the reigns and move forward. And these are the true Americans.