in over our heads, but we must go on...

That's how it feels sometimes. It was one of those days today in the Bay Area where a memorial service was held for the four Oakland police officers that were killed last weekend. Traffic came to a stop on area freeways as ramps were blocked off to aid traffic to and from Oracle Arena. It was an amazing sight to see one-half of Interstate 880 jammed full of cars and the other direction of the freeway entirely empty as if an evacuation ahead of a hurricane was in progress.

I was able to watch a little of the local news coverage leading up to the memorial service and part of the memorial service too because I had the day off from work today (yesterday now as I write this). My two sons saw parts of the coverage too. They were curious about the service and why it was on television.

Ryan: That's a lot of police.

Me: Yeah, there's something 20,000 people at the memorial service (and later I read that there were another 10,000 people watching the service on the giant screen in the Coliseum where the A's play).

Ryan: What happened to them? Where are they now?

Me: Those are the police officers that were shot last week.

Ryan: Are they okay now?

Me: They were shot by a man who didn't want to go back to jail. They died and this is their funeral.

Ryan: Were these police the strongest ones?

Me: They were very brave, but that's what police do. They are here to protect regular people like us.

Ryan: But were they the strongest ones?

Me: What do you mean?

Ryan: They must've been the strongest ones because of what they did.

Me: Yes, police have to be strong, but maybe you mean brave. You know, being able to do something even though you know that it might be hard.

Ryan: Yeah, I think they were brave.

Later, when pictures of all of the slain officers appeared, I explained that one of the officers shared something in common with them: a Japanese last name, Sakai.

During the memorial service, the tribute song that they played for Dan Sakai was one from The Fray. I hadn't heard the song in quite some time, but I remembered that it was used as the sound track for a slide show tribute to 9-11. That was eight years ago. Below is a video clip of The Fray performing the song.