EDITORIAL
“I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course. I have kept the faith.”—Second Timothy 4: 7-8.
Those words were written more than 2,000 years ago but they were appropriate to dwell on last week as Milam County said farewell to Sheriff David Greene.
Greene died June 26. Talk about fighting the good fight. He survived 24 days after sustaining a massive heart attack the likes of which had instantly killed many victims.
The 65-year-old sheriff spent much more than half his life serving, and protecting, Milam County residents. They repaid him with an astonishing show of support as his body was first returned from the Oregon hospital where he died and then taken back to Cameron for a funeral service.
He was first a game warden, then constable and finally sheriff. If there was any bright spot—and it’s not nearly as good as still having him here, of course—in the events of the past month, it was that those 24 precious days gave him and his family a chance to see just how the people he served felt about him.
That reaction went beyond support. The sheriff was loved.
That’s not a word you hear too often used in connection with law enforcement. But it should be. Seeing all those badges together at a funeral attended by well over 1,000 people should have been a sobering reminder to all of us just how much we owe to those few who stand in the brink every hour of every day.
They chose to, of course, but it’s something deeper than that. They are human beings doing an extra-human job.
Sometimes simply being human catches up with them—people do pass away—as it will with all of us some day.
Those people behind the badges are too busy doing what they do for much reflection about it.
But at times like last week it’s appropriate.
Thanks sheriff. And thanks all of you.—M.B.
- Log in or Subscribe to post comments.