Letter: Blue lives matter

I am saddened by this month’s news of shootings of both civilians and cops.

What are we becoming as a society? The news the last couple of days is questioning our American values that made us a great country that the rest of the world envied. How is it that we have lost our rule of law and decency?

The videos that were posted represent a microscopic fraction of police officers. That is not how they are trained and unfortunately there are a few that have made horrible decisions.

At the same time we need to question ourselves and the overall degradation of society’s values. Most of us grew up in a society where churches were full and kids were busy playing outside. Television only had a handful of stations and almost all had family friendly messages. The only phone in the house was the one with a cord in the kitchen which meant mom and dad heard all our conversations. Parent-teacher conferences were full and there was respectful conversations on how the child could improve. Our president had knowledge of wrongdoings and resigned in disgrace — because it was the right thing for our country.

Today, some churches are empty, every kid has a cellphone which they use to text while in the classroom. Parent-teacher conferences are evolving to how the teacher needs to improve — not the student. Kids are learning it’s OK to be disrespectful by what they watch on the internet and the idea of the rule of law has been thrown out the window.

Cops now are having trouble distinguishing the fine line between good and bad. Split-second decisions are made that can be the difference between seeing their kids that night or having their kids seeing them face up in a casket. It is easy to armchair quarterback what happened after the fact, but the reality is it is difficult to know what decisions a cop should make in dangerous situations.

Let’s not forget that cops are here to protect us. If we don’t respect them, eventually we will have a force of police that will become indifferent, allowing the bad guys to prevail. We need our best and brightest citizens joining the police, military, and other professions that protect us. To do that we need to show blue lives matter.

Tony Forlini, candidate for U.S. Congress

10th District