For whom the bell tolls....

Since 1892, 30 Charlotte officers have paid the ultimate sacrifice. Seven of the 30 officers have lost their life since my move to Charlotte in 1991. A terribly sad statistic.

I honored these officers on July 14, 2012 in a blog story called "End of watch ... we'll take it from here", and for the past two months, I have been working on a special video to honor them again.

It has been a privilege to learn more about these officers the past two months. While my video was still in the developing stage, there were many nights I would drive home after work thinking about the video that I would start working on again when I got home. The song that I chose to accompany the video would run through my head and every face would cross my thoughts. What an honor that I could now call these 30 officers by name...."that's Officer Nichols, that's Officer Coleman, Officer Moran, Detective Correll."

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department has so beautifully honored these officers on their memorial page. To learn more about these courageous officers, please visit www.cmpd.org.

Forever honored....never forgotten.

Rest in peace, Sir.   

This poem written by John Donne seemed so appropriate, so I used it in my video. Many people think this poem was written by Ernest Longfellow, but in fact, Mr. Donne published this hundreds of years earlier. Ernest Longfellow's book "For Whom the Bell Tolls", published in 1940, made this famous quote even more popular.

"Any man's death diminishes me,
because I am involved in mankind,
and therefore never send to know for
whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."  

                                                                   ~ John Donne

I remain prayerful every day that we see no other officers fall in the line of duty. May God bless and protect you all.

♥