ECHOES...
Revolutionary War... Tripoli... French and Indian War... War of 1812... Mexican War... War Between the States... Battle of Belleau Wood... Ardennes-The Bulge... Normandy... Omaha... Guadalcanal... Iwo Jima... Chosin Resivoir... Tet Offensive... Persian Gulf War... 9-11-01... Iraq... Afghanistan...

We have fought so many places and so many wars in our short history... Plus the incidents that have gravely, deeply affected us nationally like 9-11.  Because I am a person interested in history, especially our history, these and many other names echo through my memory today.  I often find myself remembering and meditating on what I know about our stormy history.  I find my mind dwelling upon the cost and the sacrifices in casualties.  The most fascinating part of our history for me is how many people have been ready and willing to face the danger and make the sacrifices for the goal of liberty with freedom to choose our own course and destiny as best that we are able.

When I make these journeys through history and through my memories of all of the things that I have absorbed and retained, I am amazed at the vivid details that I can relive and review anytime that I desire.  I use these memories to keep me alert and sharp as I think about and pray for the ones who make these sacrifices for all the rest of us.

I do the same thing in relation to law enforcement.  My mind is filled with vivid details that reflect how great has been the cost of sacrifice so that you and I can live in liberty and freedom within this land in which we live.  While many view our history as bloody and violent, I view that same history as the cost of the dream of liberty.  We began with the premise of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness... A Government of the People, By the People and for the people... and hundreds of thousands have made the ultimate sacrifice to fulfill that dream... Or to keep that dream alive... Even the passengers of Flight 93 during 9-11.

What is it in the human makeup that spurs us to such action?...  I call it spirit... The dream of the human heart to be free to make choices for the course of our lives.  It has been alive since the first humans had to work to survive... It became even more alive when there came a time when one human exercised controlling power over the life of another human and forced the one under control to be subservient... to always be doing the will and choices of another.  I know something about such domination from my childhood.  It was a long road and a long battle but I learned how to exercise right choices and give right responses that brought me out of bondage to the forced will of others into the choice to be able to choose for myself my lawful course of life and actions. 

Learn from history... or be doomed to repeat it... ("George Santayana: Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.")

Then I came to believe in law and justice.  After learning about law and justice I learned about One who came to give me life and that more abundantly.  Then I studied and prayed until I knew the right course was for me to give my life and service over to this One to learn His directions and follow them.  I have a phrase that describes my travel through life since then... It is said this way... "It gets gooder and gooder!"  I know that is poor English but no one who hears it ever forgets that I said it.

After beginning my career in law and justice I soon learned that justice was an elusive
commodity.  I also learned that I could not always get justice with law, a badge of authority and a gun or force.  I learned that the heart of man is capable of two basic choices... Man can choose good... Or he can choose evil... And usually man is a mixture of the two to one degree or another... Seldom all bad or all good... But someplace in-between the two extremes.  I learned that something was missing in me... Actually I learned that I was missing what could be termed as Someone... And after five years of law enforcement I determined to find the answer that I so desperately needed.  If I was going to be successful I had to find the missing Ingredient... That Ingredient turned out to be the Person of Jesus Christ and through Him to the Creator... To the One whom I now call Commander-In-Chief.

After that experience of meeting them I knew my course and set out upon it as best I knew how.  I waited for someone to step up and teach me... But it did not happen.
After two years I said a prayer of relinquishment... "If this is all there is I don't need this.
Since no one else will teach me I am asking you to teach me directly.  Make a way way for me... I want to know just how much you will do for one man.  Teach me your Way... Make it so plain that I cannot miss it and so simple that I can do it.... And I will follow you as best I am able."  If you pray that way you had better be ready to go along or to duck and run.  I choose to go along and my life took off like a rocket... And it has been going onward and upward ever since.

I was led into law enforcement here as an officer and a chaplain.  I was given great dreams.  It was unimaginable how those dreams could or would ever be fulfilled... But many of them have not only been fulfilled but have been successful.  Some of those dreams are still out there in front of me and I am pursuing them.  Unexpected opportunities continue to pop up that I can and do use to advantage.  I am constantly involved in learning new things, re-learning things that I have known that I have forgotten or that have been revised or changed and must be learned as though new.
Law enforcement demands constant learning and research or you fall behind... Or you make mistakes.

People are our raw material.  Relationships with the people with whom we have to deal... Relationships with the people with whom we have to work... Relationships with the people with whom we have personal, family and intimate relationships... All of these take much time, effort and learning... Since people are my course in life I am constantly learning and applying new ways and polishing old ways so that they work more effectively. 

Tonight as I am thinking about those who will read this message I am praying that something will be here that will be useful to you.  All of you must be involved with dealing with people.  That is the nature of your lives.  Some of the people in our lives are like sandpaper being used to polish us.  Some people are like hammer and chisel being used to take sharp corners and edges off of us that need to go.  Some people are being used to soften us so that we may be re-shaped into a more useful person ourselves... And all of us are being used in these same ways in the lives of other persons.

Please remember that the only things really important in our lives are the other lives with whom we have contact.  Without them we would not be who we are.  Without us they could not be who they are.  All of our contacts with other humans are opportunities for us and them to learn and become more effective than we have been.

Ask yourselves each day... "What good thing can I learn and apply today that will make today and the lives I come into contact with better than we were yesterday?"

THANK YOU FOR WHO YOU ARE AND FOR WHAT YOU DO!.. You make life in this world more pleasant than most people will ever know.  Without each of you and all of you life in this world as we know it today would be very difficult.  As you fill your place in the line you help to hold evil at bay or help to apprehend it and stop the actions of evil.
My Commander-In-Chief and I will be eternally grateful that you are there... That you have done what you have done...  And that you are doing that which you are doing...
ETERNALLY GRATEFUL!

"BE CAREFUL OUT THERE!"  Be alert, watchful, suspicious and wary.  Take the very best of care of you as you care for and about others.  See to the well being of your spirit as well as all of the rest of your being.  Your spirit needs to be strong for you to be successful.

Today I was blessed to do a wedding for an officer from Missouri and his bride.  He reads CC and called to see if I would do the wedding on the beach.  Of course I said yes.  It was a beautiful time on the beach at 10 AM this morning as they exchanged their vows.  I do get some very surprising contacts from some of you who read CC.  Thank you... Thank you all!

Call or write if I may be of any assistance.

As it has always been... So it still is...

"VICTORIOUS WARRIORS WIN FIRST...
AND THEN GO TO WAR,
WHILE DEFEATED WARRIORS GO TO WAR FIRST...
AND THEN SEEK TO WIN."  Sun tzu

ONLY LIVE PEACE KEEPERS SEE THE VICTORY!!!
THEY SEE IT ONLY BECAUSE OTHERS HAVE MADE THEIR ETERNAL
PAYMENTS OF SWEAT, BLOOD, TEARS AND LIFE FOR THAT VICTORY!

WITH THE DEEPEST OF APPRECIATION AND RESPECT...
BE BLESSED (A CONDITION TO BE ENVIED)...
BE SUCCESSFUL... BE SAFE...
[My injunction to be safe means doing all you know to do as you do your job... it means
doing the best you can with what you have where you are using all your faculties to get
the job done well and with good results conquering evil and keeping or restoring peace...
it does not mean to avoid duty and honor... it does not mean to cower or allow anything
to hinder you in the process of duty according to rules, law and ethics...  it means that if
the demand takes your earthly life you destroy as much evil as possible in the process. 
That is my definition of being safe... doing the best you can and leaving the rest to God
or whomever else is responsible... being best employed for the sake and protection of all
the things and people that we hold dear.]

I represent, write for... and give the credit to:
God the Father (my Commander-in-Chief),
Jesus Christ the Son (the Eternal Captain of my life) and
the Holy Spirit of God (my Eternal Teacher, Keeper and Guide).
In Christ I live... with Him and for you I serve...
And I rejoice that you are there whether you are Christian or not...
D. R. (Don) Staton, Chaplain to Peace Keepers, 
VIRGINIA STATE POLICE ALUMNI,
RETIRED Police Officer, Certified Police Instructor,
757-431-2190, chpln1@verizon.net
3709 Beacon Lane, Virginia Beach, VA 23452
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