PODCAST: Police should represent light in darkness | Merry Christmas | MRC093
Police should represent light in darkness | Merry Christmas | MRC093
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Show Notes from This Episode
The On The Blue Line Podcast and Community has the mission of Empowering Cops in their personal lives and educating the public on the realities of law enforcement. This law enforcement podcast is focused on providing concepts, ideas, and actionable steps that can make a difference in your life. The morning roll call is a weekly monologue show with Wayne Mulder. The Interview Room podcast is an interview style format hosted by Wayne Mulder.
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In this episode:
Christmas News Stories:
· Florida man throws, hits wife with Christmas tree after being asked to help make dinner: Police. Blaze Media. Paul Sacca. December 15, 2022. https://www.theblaze.com/news/florida-man-hits-wife-christmas-tree
· What the ’12 Days of Christmas will cost you with 2022’s inflation. PAHomepage. Carl Aldinger. December 15, 2022. https://www.pahomepage.com/news/what-the-12-days-of-christmas-will-cost-you-with-2022s-inflation/
· Five Antifa members are charged with domestic terrorism: Cops swoop on Atlanta autonomous zone and find explosives- after locals were ambushed and homes set alight. Daily Mail.com. Paul Farrell. December 15, 2022. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11544637/Five-Antifa-members-charged-domestic-terrorism-cops-swooped-following-Atlanta-protest.html
· Police: fatally shot Miss. Officer killed shooter in final moments. Police1.com. Associated Press. December 17, 2022. https://www.police1.com/officer-shootings/articles/police-fatally-shot-miss-officer-killed-shooter-in-final-moments-OBDXzd7fPfjZy3bO/
· I heard the bells on Christmas Day. Henry W. Longfellow (1864). https://hymnary.org/text/i_heard_the_bells_on_christmas_day
One take away for the week:
· A conversation about Love.
o In the last of the series about Advent and discussion around Christmas and law enforcement. I discuss that law enforcement really is a light in darkness.
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TRANSCRIPTION OF EPISODE. Please note this is a new service we are offering and there will be spelling, grammar and accuracy issues. This transcription is offered as a convenience to our listeners, but at this time it is not guaranteed to be accurate.
00:00:14:21 - 00:00:39:04
Wayne Mulder
Ho, Ho, Ho...Merry Christmas. That's right. Welcome, my friend, to the On the Blue Line podcast. And this is the last one before Christmas Day. So a big merry Christmas to you. I am your host of the on the Blue Line podcast Wayne Mulder. And thank you so much for joining me again this week. This is a law enforcement podcast where we discuss topics that are going to empower you on and off the job.
00:00:39:13 - 00:01:09:26
Wayne Mulder
Maybe you're tired, frustrated, feeling overworked, struggling to balance work and home demands, or maybe you simply need some encouragement. Then you have come to the right place and welcome. This is the 93rd morning roll call in the 145th episode of the podcast. On today's podcast, the sound that gave the poet hope. Only in Florida do you get hit with this, and I give you hope and wish you a merry Christmas if this is your first time listening.
00:01:09:26 - 00:01:28:12
Wayne Mulder
Welcome. We have two weekly podcast. This one that you are listening to or watching is Morning Roll Call releases every Monday at zero five. And it's just a weekly monologue show where you and I sit down, discuss news. Recent events, law enforcement trends and a variety of other topics. That's going to give you something to consider as you begin your week.
00:01:28:21 - 00:01:47:23
Wayne Mulder
And then the other show is the Interview Room, which is a weekly interview show that releases every Thursday. And in there, I sit down with guests from all walks of life that can offer something beneficial for either our personal or our professional lives. Last week, I sat down with Molly DeFrank. If you haven't listened to that yet, I encourage you to go back and check it out.
00:01:48:10 - 00:02:22:04
Wayne Mulder
She wrote a book called Digital Detox, and I know what you're thinking. Oh, she must hate technology. No, that's not what it's about at all. That's why I encourage you to listen to it. She is not against technology. Rather, as she says, it's about putting it in its proper place. It's really an episode about strong families, so I encourage you to check that out this coming week, which will be right before Christmas is going to be the first of two specials where actually I go back, there's a question that I ask at the end of every episode that we've had, and we've done over 50 interview rooms now, and I always ask the guest the
00:02:22:04 - 00:02:40:10
Wayne Mulder
question, which is what is the one thing that law enforcement officers can do that's going to make a difference in their personal lives? So I thought nothing would be more fitting for the last two episodes of the year than to go back way to the beginning, going all the way back to 2019. And we'll put some of those together in a condensed version.
00:02:40:10 - 00:03:00:02
Wayne Mulder
They won't be very long and it'll be something you can easily listen to if you have listened to those episodes before. And then it will be a good refresher for you. And if you have not, then it will be a good way to get at least the meat of those early episodes of the podcast. Just know all the episodes of the podcast are released on both YouTube and Rumble.
00:03:00:11 - 00:03:23:20
Wayne Mulder
Everything is kind of designed around video, hence the Santa hat in the very festive looking office, if I may say so myself. But in all seriousness, we can be found everywhere you stream your podcast. So no matter which way you listen to us, whether you're watching a video or you are listening, thank you so much for coming back every week and more about what we're doing can always be found at OnTheBlueLine.com.
00:03:24:16 - 00:03:44:15
Wayne Mulder
So as I said, Christmas is this coming Sunday. So it is less than one week away. And as I was sitting down to think about what I wanted to do for the last morning roll call before Christmas, I had no idea what I want to talk about, but just to be completely honest with you. So I debated on a few things and I finally came down to, you know what?
00:03:44:15 - 00:04:11:02
Wayne Mulder
I'm going to go back to telling a couple news stories and then I'm going to segway into something that kind of feeds off of them. But first, I wanted to get started with a couple of news stories that were Christmas related and nothing says Christmas and Florida as the follow up better than the following headline Florida Man Throws His Wife with Christmas Tree after being asked to help make dinner.
00:04:12:28 - 00:04:34:00
Wayne Mulder
Yeah, yeah. That's that's exactly what it said. So a Florida man was arrested for hitting his wife with a Christmas tree after she asked him to help make dinner, said the police. So this 52 year old man allegedly became angry when his wife asked him to help make dinner. The argument escalated when the woman put a spoon in the sink and accidentally splashed him.
00:04:36:00 - 00:05:06:23
Wayne Mulder
Okay, so clearly, these two are not getting along very well and he decides I'm leaving, which is probably smart. Right? Like, that's usually what we'd suggest. Maybe you ought to get your stuff and go cool off for a bit, right? So he starts to pack up his stuff and he's going to take off, but then he returns home because, quote, he had been drinking and instead he tells his wife, You need to leave, honey, you know what?
00:05:06:23 - 00:05:34:08
Wayne Mulder
You need to go home. Yeah. He comes in here drunk, probably in a stupor. You need to go. I don't want my house. You go. Yeah. Yeah. That's what happened. So he suggests she leaves. Well, what does she do? She tries to leave When she tried to exit out the front door, Adkinson pushes her away from the door, picks up the Christmas tree from the corner, and threw it into the kitchen.
00:05:34:23 - 00:06:00:24
Wayne Mulder
Then he struck her with a part of the broken Christmas tree. She then tried to leave the bedroom. He kicks down the door, blocks the front door, so nothing says Merry Christmas, like being arrested and charged with a third degree felony, false imprisonment and domestic violence, and a misdemeanor violation of an injunction. To be clear, in no way am I making fun or poking fun at this domestic violence incident.
00:06:01:02 - 00:06:32:00
Wayne Mulder
It's tragic that these kind of things happen. However, what I am poking fun at, or what I am finding quite ironic is that only in Florida, only with Florida man does throwing a Christmas tree at your wife really scream. Christmas. Anyway. All right. So the second Christmas related story that I wanted to bring you this week is you can thank your government specifically those in charge.
00:06:32:00 - 00:06:58:08
Wayne Mulder
I won't name any names on what the 12 days of Christmas would cost you with 2022 is inflation. So first of all, I don't know who would ever buy so many Dane birds for their true love, but everybody knows the song The 12 Days of Christmas and according to the Christmas Price index, they said everything is up almost 10% now.
00:06:58:08 - 00:07:26:14
Wayne Mulder
Not everything. That's an average. The human based gifts. What we'll get to it here. So essentially what caused the cost to go up according to this is the higher feed cost. So how much would a partridge in a pear tree cost year? $280.18. That is up 25% from last year. Now, I've never in my life said, you know what I really want for Christmas?
00:07:26:14 - 00:07:56:09
Wayne Mulder
Yeah, but what I really want is a partridge in a pear tree. But if you were to buy one for your true love, it's going to be 25% more than last year. But two turtle doves up 33%, $600, three French hens now at some point here, I think when you show up with this many birds, someone might think you're a little bit, shall I say, crazy, But it's their own.
00:07:56:29 - 00:08:23:04
Wayne Mulder
Three French hens are going to set you back another 25%. But here is the good news for calling birds is 599 96, which is the same price as last year. So you can get four calling birds for the same price as you could have in 2021. Five gold rings are up almost 40% to 1245 six geese allaying I.
00:08:24:02 - 00:08:52:24
Wayne Mulder
I guess that's a good guarantee because you want to make sure your geese are laying seven swans swimming. Now. I've always questioned the swans swimming because like do they provide the mechanism by which they can continue to swim So like, does it come with a pond or does it come with a pool? But seven swans are swimming $13,124 in $0.93.
00:08:53:15 - 00:09:19:18
Wayne Mulder
Here's the crazy thing is that is not a price increase. I'm going to talk about a story here in a moment that points out the insanity of this kind of thing. But yeah, that's not a price increase. Eight maids a milking, I don't know, $58. I'm not sure where we come up with these prices. It does say something around here that they use the federal minimum wage to determine the human cost.
00:09:20:13 - 00:09:59:21
Wayne Mulder
But that's not true with everything. But you can get eight maids a milking for $58, which is not a price increase. Nine ladies dancing. Okay, for a 10% increase. Ten lords, a leaping, huh? For $13,980. 11 pipers piping and 12 drummers drumming, each of those up 2.6%. So in all four year, 12 days of Christmas, it will cost you $45,523.27, which is an increase of 10.5%.
00:10:00:09 - 00:10:41:05
Wayne Mulder
Now, remember, though, in the silly song, the true love buys all this ridiculousness every day for the 12 days. Thus everything has to be multiplied. So you're truly ending up with 364 individual items which would cost you a whopping $194,000. 959 $194,951. Wow. All I can say is that long before I end up with that many darn birds, I would hope that my true love would buy me bison or cattle.
00:10:41:17 - 00:11:07:19
Wayne Mulder
That would be my first preference before we end up with a bunch of birds. All right, so enough of that. So is this So I wanted to touch on a story here because I think it will open the door for what we're going to talk about next. So five into four members are charged with domestic terrorism after cops swooped following in Atlanta protest.
00:11:07:19 - 00:11:39:07
Wayne Mulder
Now, all through here, they call this protesting. If by protesting, you are burning things down, you are sticking nails into trees. What I guess sticking nails into trees like eco terrorism that actually can get you promoted in the current administration. But I mean, other than that, of course, if you are burning things down, if you are throwing little bombs at law enforcement, I kind of don't call that protesting.
00:11:39:07 - 00:12:05:25
Wayne Mulder
And I'm pretty sure it's not covered in any way, shape or form under the First Amendment to the Constitution. But I digress. So essentially, these protesters began attacking police and other emergency service workers with rocks and bottles. They recovered bombs, flares, gasoline at the site. One member said that they threw a gas bomb leaving his truck behind. He was out there doing something and they throw this gas bomb at home.
00:12:05:25 - 00:12:44:23
Wayne Mulder
He just leaves his truck and takes off. And when he comes back, it's burnt out completely. And these individuals, all young, were all charged with domestic terrorism, which is awesome to see. But here is what I just absolutely flabbergasted me. So the Atlanta Solidarity Fund came out and said they were legitimate political protesters. There's clear evidence to the contrary that the people they have been arresting and targeting and attacking have been engaged in nothing but peaceful civil disobedience.
00:12:45:10 - 00:13:15:03
Wayne Mulder
Remember, this is the kind of thing we were led to believe in 2020 when they had like entire city blocks on fire behind them. And we were told they were mostly peaceful protest. Yeah, it's pretty much the same logic. I think there are forest defenders who will continue to defend the forest. That means civil disobedience, that means rallies, that means demonstrations, that means all the tactics we can use, including burning things down, including taking over the property and just creating an autonomous zone.
00:13:16:21 - 00:13:38:21
Wayne Mulder
So it goes on to say that this is a $90 million project that the Atlanta Police Foundation was trying to build. It's a training center. And I'll give you some more specifics on that here in a minute. And they said so dissenters to it are calling it Cop City, and they're saying, well, they're using it to practice urban warfare against us.
00:13:38:21 - 00:14:13:00
Wayne Mulder
So the training center would include a shooting range classrooms, a mock village, an emergency vehicle driving course, stables for police, horses, a burned building for firefighters to practice putting out fires. And the vote came weeks after a protest. And, of course, they have to remove part of this for us to, of course, put this complex in. So what I find so crazy and of course this is the logic that we end up fighting all the time with the quote unquote, defund the police movement is that you have an issue with the way law enforcement operates.
00:14:13:12 - 00:14:45:03
Wayne Mulder
And the best way to combat that would be training. And yet anything law enforcement does from needing more funds to trying to build something in order to get more training, it's constantly fought by these fringe groups that they their actions are not consistent with what they claim they actually are fighting for. So that was just one story that I wanted to read to you last week.
00:14:45:13 - 00:15:09:10
Wayne Mulder
There was a well-known I guess I had no idea who it was, but they the president had invited a bunch of people out for a signing he was doing, and one of them included a guy who feels pretty and he essentially is well-known for being a defund the police advocate and very into law enforcement. And yet this individual was invited to the White House.
00:15:09:10 - 00:15:50:10
Wayne Mulder
And, you know, is parading around around the grounds there for the signing. And there's a lot of these people that we keep hearing more and more about that have very anti law enforcement stances. And they are kind of looked at as either celebrity or given a voice or spoken to by this current administration. And one of the ways that I prep for these podcasts for when I'm talking about news stories, which is part of the morning roll call, if this is your first time listening to us, the other show, the interview Room, is an actual interview show where I sit down with guest and we hear their story.
00:15:50:10 - 00:16:06:29
Wayne Mulder
But in this one it's just you and I. So I like to, you know, bring you different stories and then we can just kind of talk them out and see what we can learn from them. And then I give you something actionable. Well, part of my prep is going through these aggregate sites that have new stories attached to them.
00:16:07:18 - 00:16:30:13
Wayne Mulder
So this is just one of the aggregate sites, and these are all individual links. So if you're watching this on video, there's probably 10 to 15 stories per page for this entire thing I have sitting in my hand here. And it goes on and on. So CDC removed a defense of gun use stats. Essentially, gun control advocates complained it made passing new restrictions more difficult.
00:16:30:13 - 00:16:52:06
Wayne Mulder
In other words, if we use facts, we can't push through our agenda. Another news story was about if you haven't been following what's going on in California, we're trying to push through these reparations, which would be 350,000 per black American in California in a business grant of tours and $50,000 and 15 to 20 acres of land. Five Antifa members are charged with domestic terrorism.
00:16:52:06 - 00:17:20:22
Wayne Mulder
I read you that story this Washington governors summit, they talk about, quote unquote, white supremacy, but condemn objectivity and individualism And on and on and on these stories go. The Dow falls sharply in the worst day in three months. Saving a recession will be short and mild, saying the recession that's coming will be short. Mild is the same trap as claiming it was transitory.
00:17:22:07 - 00:17:40:29
Wayne Mulder
Of course, the Trump era remains in Mexico. Policy is going to go away. There is some judges that are putting some stays on it, but depending on how that ends, what I was alluding to a moment ago, a story about Bizarro inflation is making random stuff cheap and necessities unaffordable. Yep, that's pretty much what we could see with that.
00:17:41:09 - 00:18:21:19
Wayne Mulder
Silly, silly list. So you can get your swans swimming for the same price as last year, but good luck buying dog food. Why do I bring all this up? Why do I just quickly go through there? Because if you're somebody who goes through this stuff on a regular basis, like I do for a podcast, or maybe you do just because you're a news junkie or whatever the case may be, it is almost impossible right now to keep up with stories, most of which are just complete idiocy, just complete spirit of the age, anti-American, anti anything good, right?
00:18:21:27 - 00:18:50:23
Wayne Mulder
Positive. Any term that you can use to describe the best or the good, it's typically the opposite that you're reading about. It is negative, it is dark, it is evil. I hate using that word, but some of it truly is evil. I mean, especially we're talking about, you know, child mutilation and death cults. And I mean, it's just absolute craziness for the typical rational human being.
00:18:50:23 - 00:19:09:21
Wayne Mulder
And two things happen. Either a lot of people choose, they want to just bury their head in the sand and others want to kind of choose like denial, which can be like burying your head in the sand. But essentially it's just like, oh, that's that's not happening or it's not as bad as it things or, you know, they're just putting out these stories.
00:19:09:21 - 00:19:42:10
Wayne Mulder
But you start to see this barrage of just a true darkness that's out there. So and I know if you're listening to this, you're probably thinking, man, this is an uplifting Christmas story. This is this is good. Thank you for talking about how bad things are. Well, keep with me. It gets better. So if you followed me for a long time, you know, I like poetry and you know that occasionally I like to talk about different hymns and where they came from, especially around the Christmas season.
00:19:42:10 - 00:20:03:25
Wayne Mulder
I'll talk about This is coming from a book Come Let US Adore Him, which talks about the stories behind the most of the most cherished Christmas hymns. And I've talked about this before, but it's been several years and it's one of my favorite Christmas hymns. And it is because it really is a hymn that was born out of tragedy.
00:20:04:08 - 00:20:21:27
Wayne Mulder
And I want to start here and then I want to talk about something really quickly and then we'll go for the week. So I heard the bells on Christmas Day. If you're familiar with the song, The famous Longfellow Brothers were born and raised in Portland, Maine, in the 1800s. Henry Wadsworth was born in oh seven and his brother Samuel.
00:20:21:27 - 00:20:46:26
Wayne Mulder
In 1819, Henry became the Harvard professor of literature and one of America's great writers, and Samuel became a Unitarian minister and hymnals while Henry was publishing books, Dark Clouds were being together over his life. In 1861, his wife tragically died when her dress caught fire in their home in Cambridge, which is just horrible, horrible, horrible. That same year, the Civil War broke out.
00:20:46:26 - 00:21:12:01
Wayne Mulder
Two years later, his son Charlie, at age 17, ran away from home and hopped aboard a train to join President Lincoln's army. He was a brave and popular soldier. He saw battles, but he ended up contacting typhoid fever and malaria was sent home to recover. Fortunately, he missed the Battle of Gettysburg, but he ended up at the Battle of New Hope Church in Virginia.
00:21:12:01 - 00:21:34:25
Wayne Mulder
He was shot through the left shoulder and it nicked his spine and came close to paralyzing him. And he was taken to Washington to recuperate and Henry was involved in nursing him back to health. So after all this tragedy, losing his wife and I believe this story doesn't actually talk, but I believe his mother also passed away around the same time or the same day.
00:21:34:25 - 00:22:03:23
Wayne Mulder
There's a part of this of Henry Wadsworth. Wadsworth Longfellow's story where he lost his mom as well, either on the same day around same time. So on Christmas day of December 25th, 1863, Henry gave in to his feelings in this plaintive carol that can only be understood against the backdrop of war. Two stanzas now omitted from most hymnal speak of the cannons thundering in the south and the hatred tearing apart the harsh stones of the continent.
00:22:04:12 - 00:22:44:05
Wayne Mulder
The poet feels like dropping his head in despair until he hears the Christmas bells. So I'm going to read to you these four or five stanzas that are very short. It'll just take me a second. But I want you to think of this in light of Christmas 2022, in light of this world that I just gave you some news stories about when we think about the anti law enforcement and really anti culture anti anything good about us civil society, anything the evil that it seems to be present right now and it comes out in story after story after story.
00:22:44:05 - 00:23:05:16
Wayne Mulder
In fact it's getting to the point that most people are accepting the evil as the way it should be and disregarding the good. It literally is. As we know, they're calling good evil and evil good. So let me read this to you just real quick. I heard the bells on Christmas Day. They're all familiar. Carols play in wild and sweet.
00:23:05:16 - 00:23:31:00
Wayne Mulder
The words repeat of peace on earth, goodwill to men and thought how, as the day had come, the belfry of all Christendom had rolled along. Thunder broke the unbroken song of peace on earth, goodwill to men, and in despair I bowed my head. There is no peace on earth, I said, for hate. The strong and mocks the song of peace on earth, goodwill to men.
00:23:31:18 - 00:24:08:27
Wayne Mulder
Those are that kind of sound like where we're at. Doesn't the hate being strong and mocking what's going on right now? The good things are being mocked, good people are being mocked, but then in the force stands up, then pealed the bells more loud and deep. God is not dead, nor doth he sleep. The wrongs shall fail. The right prevail with peace on earth, goodwill to men tell ringing, singing on its way The world revolve from night today a voice, a chime, a chant sublime of peace on earth, goodwill to men.
00:24:09:28 - 00:24:29:11
Wayne Mulder
So what I thought about as I kind of digested everything that was going on in news stories and so forth this week and how it applied to law enforcement and what it can do to help us both in our personal lives and our professional lives. If you follow the liturgical calendar, the last two weeks we've talked about peace and we've talked about joy.
00:24:29:21 - 00:25:03:21
Wayne Mulder
But yesterday was the Love candle or the Angels candle, and that word is so misused these days and just completely misunderstood. But what is love with love is true. Love is sacrifice. True love is that preferring others over ourselves. It's that greater love have no man than this, than giving his life for another. And those were some of the stories I didn't read today because I didn't want to make it that heavy.
00:25:03:21 - 00:25:37:12
Wayne Mulder
But as you've seen in the news, we've lost several law enforcement officers nationwide again this week in just tragic, tragic incidents. One in a traffic incident, two in a shooting. Just tragedy after tragedy. And I know anecdotally it's that time of year that there's a tick up in death investigations, homicides, suicides. It's it really is a time of year where we want to think about peace and hope and joy and all the things we've talked about in previous weeks.
00:25:38:02 - 00:26:07:26
Wayne Mulder
We have such a darkness that comes around and we have people, you know, that have lost friends and family and maybe they're in a bad way or a bad place. And, you know, darkness kind of comes into their life. And I think sometimes we do a disservice. There's nothing wrong with the peace message because that is true. And there's nothing wrong with joy and there's nothing wrong with, you know, these things that I've talked about in the last few weeks.
00:26:08:12 - 00:26:34:03
Wayne Mulder
But I think sometimes we miss the true story of Christmas when we focus only on those things and we don't think of what that moment was really like in history the first Christmas. Now, again, I say this all the time, but obviously I'm coming at this from a Judeo Christian perspective. If those aren't your beliefs or if you've got a different perspective, then your take on it may be a little different.
00:26:34:08 - 00:27:02:01
Wayne Mulder
But for those who believe that that first Christmas was a little baby boy, the savior of the world, being born in a little town of Bethlehem, then there is this mistake in wishful thinking, right where we want to think of Christmas as this serene, dreamy moment of peace, and rather it was an insurgency. It we want to and there's nothing wrong with it.
00:27:02:01 - 00:27:24:10
Wayne Mulder
Think of children in bathrobes, right? Being little shepherds as they play out plays around the Christmas holiday. And yet it was less that and more the beaches of Normandy. It was a dark world, Remember that? It ended up with all babies under the age of two. Herod putting out an order to have them killed. That's pretty dark. That is pretty evil.
00:27:25:03 - 00:27:52:26
Wayne Mulder
Darkness enveloped the world. Sin had enveloped the world. But then light in the form of a little baby entered into this darkness, and darkness wasn't happy. It did not appreciate it. And hence the war continued. The good news is, is that war was won and someday that kingdom will be ushered in. But that's a conversation for a different day.
00:27:53:23 - 00:28:24:16
Wayne Mulder
But I think that that is a good reminder that Christmas. Yes, it should be. If you're watching the some video, you see I have this cute little village here in front of me. I've got the trees back here that absolutely that should all have part of our Christmas holiday. There's there's absolutely nothing wrong with celebrating peace and joy and love and the utopian type mindset, knowing that one day those things will come.
00:28:25:23 - 00:28:53:15
Wayne Mulder
But the reality is, is that you and I serve in this career in a world that has not reached its ideal. We serve in a society that has completely fallen apart. I honestly think the next 20 to 30 years in this enlightened short of a miracle, of course we can always hope for one of those in this country will be unlike anything we ever even dreamed.
00:28:53:16 - 00:29:09:06
Wayne Mulder
Back in the eighties, I mean, the direction we're going with like social credit scores and I mean, this stuff is coming at us so fast that unless you're reading as many stories a day and keeping up on stuff like I am, which chances are you're not because you're normal.
00:29:11:08 - 00:29:47:09
Wayne Mulder
What is coming is not good and it's not going to be good. There is a lot of darkness and evil that's coming with it. But I think we have to remember the light that not only God in the form of a baby brought to this world, but how we are reflections of that light in darkness. You know, when you're in a cave and it is dark, like so dark, you can't even see your hand in front of your face, You know, when if you've ever done one of those cave tours.
00:29:47:09 - 00:30:09:27
Wayne Mulder
And while you're down there, they turn the lights out and you can't see anything. It's that dark. There's no stars, you know, like if you're out in the woods or something, it may feel dark, but there's usually some sort of light, reflective light that will shine. And then you can, you know, you might at least see some figures or silhouettes or something like that.
00:30:10:18 - 00:30:37:21
Wayne Mulder
But if you're in like a cave and those lights go out and there is no light that can filter in from any source, it is dark and it doesn't take a whole lot of light to make a huge difference. A small candle, small flicker from a match, and then it just completely broadens out into that space. Just driving away the darkness.
00:30:39:04 - 00:31:04:03
Wayne Mulder
Think of that. Think of that this Christmas. Think of that as you take a little time here around the holidays to to reflect, because you and I, that is kind of our role in law enforcement. You know, we serve you know, we sometimes, you know, it's people beating each other with Christmas trees for what it is. We can get them help, we can get them services and so forth.
00:31:04:18 - 00:31:31:13
Wayne Mulder
But other other times it's much more dark, much more tragic, much more evil, much more outside of our comprehension. We see the most reprehensible of things. And you're like, How? How can people even do this to each other? But you are given that light. You come into that moment and in the moments of intense darkness, that's really the role you get to have.
00:31:31:18 - 00:31:50:04
Wayne Mulder
You get to be light. So we are in a world at war. If you're in the U.S., I would even argue that we are in a Cold War. But we'll talk more about that after the first of the year. But darkness is truly enveloping us on all sides. Every aspect of the culture has been fully given over to the spirit of the age.
00:31:50:20 - 00:32:09:18
Wayne Mulder
Yet in conversation after conversation, so many people choose not to see it. They don't want to believe it or they don't want to be a part of it. There's only a small remnant, only a small group of people who see it, and they're actually actively trying to fight it. This is the reality that law enforcement works and they are the line.
00:32:09:22 - 00:32:33:17
Wayne Mulder
You are the line between chaos and anarchy. You're that tiny bulb of hope and intense darkness. Remember, though, a small amount of light looks like a tense light. The darker it is, the more intense it gets. This Christmas, see the world around you for what it is. See the darkness. But know that you are here doing what you are doing for such a time as this.
00:32:33:27 - 00:32:55:05
Wayne Mulder
Don't give up hope. Love is giving As you give to your family. You give to your community. You are exhibiting love. Several officers this week paid the ultimate sacrifice in greater love. Have no man than this. Than a man lay down his life for his friends. But in darkness we see love in darkness we can see moments of hope around us.
00:32:55:18 - 00:33:23:23
Wayne Mulder
For Longfellow, it was hearing those Christmas Day bells that reminded him that God was not dead, nor was he sleeping. I'm here to remind you that you are loved. You symbolize love in what you do every day. And now is not the time to give up hope. Rather, it is the time to rally around the truth from over 2000 years ago that a little baby entered into a world at war in order that one day he may usher in peace.
00:33:24:22 - 00:33:43:02
Wayne Mulder
Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas to you. Merry Christmas to your families. And thank you so much for listening to this podcast every week. I'm so thankful and so honored that you come back here week after week. So that does it for this week's Morning Roll Call. I'll see you on Thursday in the interview room. But in the meantime, I'll see you out there on the blue line.
00:33:45:03 - 00:34:23:04
Song
Good tidings we bring to you and your Kin. We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.