Recently I referenced my friends who are Law Enforcement / Park Rangers with the National Park Service only to be met with a smattering of disdain and ridicule from a couple of ill-informed commissioned members of municipal Police Departments. This happens all too frequently everywhere I travel in the United States.

Sad, disgusting, actually, that my friends, students and clients in Federal Service, Tribal Agencies, University Police and Port Police have to – not my words, their words – “work twice as hard to prove they are real cops …” to people who should know better.

Echo chambers are dangerous especially when the echos are little more than non-adult, commissioned arrogance ridiculing others. It is an abysmal belief system – and an unsustainable business model – that must make someone else look bad in order to justify its own worth.

May 2025 be a year when all Law enforcement joins together to focus on the things that bind us as Americans rather than on those things that divide us. You’re going to need all the cohesiveness you can get.

Lead like you mean it. Better yet, Adult like you mean it. – s

Click here to learn more about National Park Service Rangers.