It was great to see so many fellow ‘soldiers’ come to honor one of their own, but he was also one of ours. More Wisconsinites should have been there to honor him on this, his day of rest. When any responsible, dedicated Wisconsin law-enforcement officer dies in the line of duty, all Wisconsinites should be sad. He was one of our boys.

Dedicated, responsible Wisconsin law-enforcement officers are Wisconsin’s soldiers. They are the ones we must trust to uphold the Laws of the land. They are the ones in the trenches doing the fighting. We always expect them to do the right thing. We always expect them to look out for the good of the citizenry. We should honor what they do for us when they pay the ultimate price.

Craig Birkholz, I salute you for giving .. everything. I know you didn’t want to do that. I know you didn’t want to leave behind a young wife, family and friends. Unfortunately, the scenarios of Craig’s situation are quite common in a law officer’s line of work. I don‘t know the whole story behind the killing, but Craig should not have even been shot at—especially by one of his fellow citizens. I believe the coward who killed Craig (and wounded another officer) did the right thing by taking his own life. It is not always a ‘bad thing’ to know that a life ended—especially in the case of this slime-ball. He must have known that he was a turn-coat. He knew he had killed one of his own; a fellow Wisconsinite; an innocent man. This killer’s death means there’s one less person out there that law-enforcement officers have to be concerned about helping at the possible cost of injury or life.

Unfortunately, many in this state (and in this nation) have lost their respect for law-enforcement authorities. I believe there are a few reasons why:

• Some people have lost their respect for law-enforcement officials simply because these criminals are wicked, worthless individuals. (Even the Bible calls some people worthless. No time for theology message right now.) These rebellious, arrogant, worthless people are the kind of people who have no respect for life–anyone’s life; they don’t care about authority; and they have no fear of the ‘system’ (even if they do get ‘caught.’) Some wicked, worthless people have come to like the cushy three hot meals and a cot ‘program’ that’s going on in most America’s prisons these days. After all, they know that they’ll only be behind bars for a short while. And they know they’ll get great (free) medical help and can even get a college degree if they so choose. (If we’re not going to ‘hang’ (guilty) people who murder and rape innocent, law-abiding human beings–especially the law-enforcement-like people who put their life on the line each day, we are a dying society where anarchy will one day ‘run the system’. (P.S. I know of many law-abiding citizens who would volunteer (in a heart-beat) to be part of the building crew for the hangman’s gallows.)

• Some of us have lost their respect for law-enforcement people because they see hypocrisy in their line-of-duty. Some of us see police officers who have more concern for political ‘buddies’ than they do for others. Political or racial favoritism is not a good ‘quality’ in a cop. Especially when we see law-enforcement people ‘favoring’ evil over good or wrong over right. It’s a concerning thing when any Wisconsinite sees law-enforcement officials ‘over-looking’ or worse yet, ‘encouraging’ ‘division’ among its citizens. (P.S. Don’t ‘sign up’ if you can’t keep your political bent or racist prejudices to yourself.  I want to know that you’re going to (really) be there to help those who don’t wear the union label. I want to be reminded (through your ‘fair’ arresting) that there are ‘slime-balls’ of all colors out there in the world.)

• A lot of this ‘disrespect’ for law officers is a result of a ‘soft on crime’ mentality. Some human beings (usually ‘tree-huggers’ and ‘girly-men’) foolishly think we can ‘love’ all criminals back to being responsible citizens. Some people (usually ‘tree-huggers’ and ‘girly-men’) see good, decent, dedicated law-enforcement people as being too tough on crime. Their wrong! (Pretty soon America will be handing out squirt guns to our officers.) Some criminal punks need to be ‘roughed up.’ The great philosopher Forrest Gump got it right, ‘Stupid is as stupid does.” Simply informing a criminal (that what they’re doing is wrong and against the law) will not make the criminal more responsible. Many criminals simply don’t care about the wrong they do. A little bit of ‘hippie love’ is not going to change that. Some criminals simply need a little ‘whooping’ in order to overcome the ‘errors of their ways.’ Others need to be ‘removed’ from the role-call. P.S. No matter how much you want a wild African lion or wild Alaskan Grizzly Bear to love you, they’ll ‘eat you up’ the first chance they get. (Just read about Timothy Treadwell and his girlfriend; they ‘loved’ Grizzly Bears to death.)

• Another reason many people don’t respect law-enforcement officials is that some have become desensitized to what exactly is right and wrong; good or evil; honest and fair. We have a whole generation of kids who have ‘grown up’ ‘robbing, kidnapping, raping and murdering people’ with computer games. (Don’t even try telling me that these violent computer games (and violent, anti-authority movies and songs) have no real bearing on a young person’s life.)  I can’t even legally write (in this story) some of the words that are in today’s music, movies and computer games. There are actually ‘games’ out there which will ‘allow’ a person to rape another human being–and they’re being sold in American stores. Shame on us! P.S. Mom and Dad. If you let ‘society’ ‘teach’ your children that all they are is another (type of) animal (in the evolutionary process) don’t be shocked when they begin to live like one. After all, in the animal world it is survival of the fittest!

Law-enforcement officials must continue to be committed to protecting all law-abiding citizens in exactly the same way. I do not ask you, I do not expect you to put your life on the line to ‘protect’ slime-balls. Unfortunately, in your line of work, you don’t always find out about the worthless form of life punk who wants to harm until it’s too late.  Thank you for your dedication. Thank you for your service to a people who don’t always honor you.