This is why the American Spirit must survive, and is the inescapable reason why it WILL prevail.
A photo of a New York City police officer kneeling down to give a barefoot homeless man in Times Square a pair of boots on a cold November night is melting even the iciest New Yorkers’ hearts online.
On Nov. 14, NYPD officer Lawrence DePrimo, who was on counterterrorism duty in Times Square, saw the older homeless man without shoes sitting on 42nd Street. DePrimo, 25, left and then returned with a pair of $100 boots he bought at a nearby Skechers store.
“It was freezing out, and you could see the blisters on the man’s feet,” DePrimo, a three-year veteran of the department who lives with his parents on Long Island, told the New York Times. “I had two pairs of socks, and I was still cold.”
The random act of kindness was captured by Jennifer Foster, a tourist from Florence, Ariz., who was visiting the city. Foster, communications director for the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office in Arizona, emailed the photo to the NYPD with a note commending DePrimo.
“The officer said, ‘I have these size 12 boots for you, they are all-weather. Let’s put them on and take care of you,'” Foster wrote. “The officer squatted down on the ground and proceeded to put socks and the new boots on this man.
“I have been in law enforcement for 17 years,” she continued. “I was never so impressed in my life. … It is important, I think, for all of us to remember the real reason we are in this line of work. The reminder this officer gave to our profession in his presentation of human kindness has not been lost.”
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Anyone who contends that “there is nothing special about America or Americans”, and all those around the world who call us “inconsiderate, pompous, selfish bullies” take note – we were there in WW-I, when we could easily have let the European dynasties kill each other off, yet we came, and laid our own lives on the line. Not to kill, but to save the lives of those who were innocent of the intrigues which had cause the war in the first place. WW-II…similar story, but with a Pearl Harbor at the start and Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end. Count all three for the horrendous acts that they were, but ALL THREE happened because Americans were loath to destroy human lives gratuitously. Think about that for a moment…
Korea, Viet Nam, Panama, Sarajevo, Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan – the US entered each of these conflicts because ‘governments’ (or ruling castes) were killing their own populations, or because intractable conditions of civil war were causing profound loss of innocent lives.
We are Americans – our individual souls, and the spirit of our country are called to serve others; to love one another, as He loves us. You cannot deny this fact without making a fool of yourself. Now, complete your understanding – ANY FORCE which thinks it can indiscriminately deny the rights of any particular group of Americans (or all of us, together) or presumes to abuse, displace, oppress, and/or kill us is in for a big surprise – we have gone all over the world to prevent such abuses…we have more experience dealing with megalomaniacs and petty dictators than the rest of the world combined. Yet for all the ‘fights’ we have gotten into, we have never lost our compassion or our giving spirit.
So I don’t give a damn whether your name is Adolf Hitler, Ho Chi Minh, Pol Pot, Barrack Obama, or Idi Amin – you are all the same, and we know how to deal with you… We will fight you with everything we have; we can and will beat you; and we will NEVER, EVER become like you, for you are THE ENEMY of all that we know to be true and good.
We will continue being who we are – generous, compassionate, take-no-BS, AMERICANS. I am proud to be one, and will stand shoulder to shoulder with anyone who bears true faith and allegiance to those same ideals.
And, for those who fail that simple test of faith and allegiance, you are of no consequence to me or my fellow Americans; like a pebble stuck in the tread of a boot, you are an annoyance to be removed at the first convenient moment, and then quickly forgotten.
AMEN
LT
~Those who abuse Liberty, do so at their own peril!
