Goal #4: Find Something To Live For
All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.
Edmund BurkeIrish orator, philosopher, & politician (1729 - 1797)
It is a paradoxical but profoundly true and important principle of life that the most likely way to reach a goal is to be aiming not at that goal itself but at some more ambitious goal beyond it.
Arnold ToynbeeEnglish historian & historical philosopher (1889 - 1975)
I often ask myself where my love of the law comes from. To anyone who really knows me, they know that I walk on the right side of the law. I respect and enforce order, and believe that it is essential for our society to function, without order and law, chaos ensues.
But the law is my love not because of an desire to be complacent or avoid hostility, but because a long time ago I realized that in all of our lives their is something outside ourselves that needs to be served, something that's worth living for, and maybe even worth dying for.
6 years ago was the time when I think I really set myself straight. I screwed around sure, I played around with the fireworks, I drank at parties underage, I had fun, but a single moment online changed my entire view on the world.
I had always been a fan of unsolved mysteries and America's Most Wanted. The shows were a big influence on me, there where things that needed to be explained, figured out, and I so wanted to be the guy who would see a person's photo on TV and call in and say "hey I know who or where this dude is" this led me on a fateful day to the FBI's website.
the page is still up and active: http://www.fbi.gov/mostwant/seekinfo/chiaw.htm
Charles and Jennifer Chia
Two children, people who hadn't had a chance to live, taken from the supposed safety of their neighborhood, subjected to god only knows what kind of horrors, and then murdered and left to rot in a ditch in rural California. I thought about all the things that they were never going to do or see, Jennifers mother would never see her daughters wedding day. Charles father would never see his son graduate college and become his own man. In brief moment one families destiny was forever altered by the actions of one unknown person. I woke up then and there.
there's a line. A clear line between what's right and what's wrong, and no matter how hard the person who did it will try, their will never be any justification. It was then and there that I knew the law and doing what was right was my purpose in life. I have been on the straight and narrow ever since. I look at these two children and I cry I can't help it. Every fiber of my being wants to be in Reno on the day their life ended and do something, anything to save them. I have come to realize that I cannot change what happened to them but I can prevent it from happening again.
It is for this reason that I study criminal psychology, it's this reason why I strive to learn everything I can about law enforcement, the thing I serve outside myself is the memory of the Chia children. If my actions can someone prevent something like this from ever happening again then I have no choice but to do all I can for other people.
These children have become my children in a sense. I keep a photo of them in my desk to remind why it's important to keep at it, to be a great investigator, to put child murders behind bars and god willing on death row where they will never harm a person again. It's sad that it takes the death of a child to show a man how to live, but their sacrifice has put the zeal in me to go as far as I can and be the best damned cop I can be.
Decide what it is that you live for and spend your life pursuing it!
Edmund BurkeIrish orator, philosopher, & politician (1729 - 1797)
It is a paradoxical but profoundly true and important principle of life that the most likely way to reach a goal is to be aiming not at that goal itself but at some more ambitious goal beyond it.
Arnold ToynbeeEnglish historian & historical philosopher (1889 - 1975)
I often ask myself where my love of the law comes from. To anyone who really knows me, they know that I walk on the right side of the law. I respect and enforce order, and believe that it is essential for our society to function, without order and law, chaos ensues.
But the law is my love not because of an desire to be complacent or avoid hostility, but because a long time ago I realized that in all of our lives their is something outside ourselves that needs to be served, something that's worth living for, and maybe even worth dying for.
6 years ago was the time when I think I really set myself straight. I screwed around sure, I played around with the fireworks, I drank at parties underage, I had fun, but a single moment online changed my entire view on the world.
I had always been a fan of unsolved mysteries and America's Most Wanted. The shows were a big influence on me, there where things that needed to be explained, figured out, and I so wanted to be the guy who would see a person's photo on TV and call in and say "hey I know who or where this dude is" this led me on a fateful day to the FBI's website.
the page is still up and active: http://www.fbi.gov/mostwant/seekinfo/chiaw.htm
Charles and Jennifer Chia
Two children, people who hadn't had a chance to live, taken from the supposed safety of their neighborhood, subjected to god only knows what kind of horrors, and then murdered and left to rot in a ditch in rural California. I thought about all the things that they were never going to do or see, Jennifers mother would never see her daughters wedding day. Charles father would never see his son graduate college and become his own man. In brief moment one families destiny was forever altered by the actions of one unknown person. I woke up then and there.
there's a line. A clear line between what's right and what's wrong, and no matter how hard the person who did it will try, their will never be any justification. It was then and there that I knew the law and doing what was right was my purpose in life. I have been on the straight and narrow ever since. I look at these two children and I cry I can't help it. Every fiber of my being wants to be in Reno on the day their life ended and do something, anything to save them. I have come to realize that I cannot change what happened to them but I can prevent it from happening again.
It is for this reason that I study criminal psychology, it's this reason why I strive to learn everything I can about law enforcement, the thing I serve outside myself is the memory of the Chia children. If my actions can someone prevent something like this from ever happening again then I have no choice but to do all I can for other people.
These children have become my children in a sense. I keep a photo of them in my desk to remind why it's important to keep at it, to be a great investigator, to put child murders behind bars and god willing on death row where they will never harm a person again. It's sad that it takes the death of a child to show a man how to live, but their sacrifice has put the zeal in me to go as far as I can and be the best damned cop I can be.
Decide what it is that you live for and spend your life pursuing it!
