Part of the problem, you see, is that
Sergeant Adamson is dead. Worse, for Blair and his minions in the corner pocket,
Adamson was one of those heroes who gave his life in the line of duty. What irks
Blair about Adamson is that he didn’t die the way he was “supposed to. “
You see, for armchair heroes like Blair,
there is a clear line for what “heroism” is. Heroes are supposed
to go down like George Armstrong Custer, blazing away with his pistol on a hill and dying last under a hail of arrows. For men like Blair,
heroes go down like Davy Crockett, alone on the Alamo walls, swinging ‘Old Betsy’ at the entire Mexican army until
shot down cleanly with a bullet to the heart. Heroism, bravery, is the Light
Brigade: “Into the valley of Death rode the six hundred!”
Don’t bother armchair heroes
like Blair with the uglier side called “reality.” There, death is
not pretty at all. Heroes die slowly, painfully, messily. Some beg for help, and others cry out for their mothers. Some
plead for mercy that won’t be shown, and still others wish that they hadn’t been “first.” Often, whether in war or on the streets of Canada and America, their vacant eyes show the confusion of
being young and facing death so soon. Fathers curse a world that makes them bury
their young and children look on, unimpressed by folded flags and distant bugles.
There is no such thing as a “heroic
death,” only a heroic life. Sergeant Edward Adamson’s heart beat
with a heroic spirit that smaller men will never know. He endured, fighting for
his family and his life until the ghosts of one night long ago took him away forever.
No, our armchair heroes of today are
silent because, while Sergeant Eddie Adamson may have lived like a hero, he didn’t “die like one.” Sustaining a wound like posttraumatic stress disorder, no matter how horrific, brings
shame upon his department. Dying of it is even worse, no matter what the facts
may be. Such “weaklings” are to be cast out, forgotten, and their
families shunned. Such is the thinking of small men.
In so doing, they have the audacity
to invoke the word, “Honour.”
Has anyone seen Toronto Police Chief
Bill Blair?
