His workday usually starts at around 4:30 every morning. He and my mother share a few moments groggily chatting over fresh coffee before he gets ready, puts on his uniform, and heads out the door. Sometimes my mother goes back to sleep after he leaves, sometimes she stays up because every morning she is worried he won't come home. My stepdad is a police officer.

Up until this past week, I suppose I've been able to ignore how real the danger he faces every day can be. I suppose I've taken for granted the fact that, so far, he's come home after every shift he takes. I suppose I haven't quite grasped the fact that there are people who hate him just because of the uniform he wears, and that many of those people would be willing to take his life if they were given the chance.

But they don't know him.

They don't know about how he treats his wife, like she herself hung the stars, or about how he loves her children as if they were his own. They don't know about how he puts in time to do things with each of us kids to make us better people. They don't know about the families he comforts when tragedy strikes, or about the lives he saves when he stops someone from doing something dangerous. Just like I was ignoring the dangers he faces, those that pose a threat to him ignore the fact that he is a human being just like them.

Do I think there are corrupt cops, police officers who use their power to carry out acts of hatred and bigotry? Absolutely. There is corruption in every occupation, and people are hurt by other people every day. I don't want you to not mourn the lives of those lost at the hands of police officers, whether that was the officer's only choice or not, because lives are lives, no matter what.

All I ask is that people consider this: Forgive.

Wash away the hatred that we allow to stain the faces of strangers. Just as beauty is in the eye of the beholder, the only reason we see evil in people we do not know is because evil clouds our own eyes. Do not look at a man or woman whose skin is dark and assume that they will lie or cheat you, and do not look at a man or woman wearing a badge and a gun and assume they want to kill you. In fact, do not assume anything about anyone,unless that assumption is that that person is a whole and worthy human being who has a life you know nothing about. People may have hurt you in the past, but protecting yourself from being hurt in the future does not mean that you have to choose violent words, thoughts or actions. It doesn't mean you have to assume the worst in people. It doesn't mean you can't forgive.

I ask, no, I beg you to consider forgiveness, so that the world can come closer to peace.