A well known local police officer recently told the Middleburg Town Council that, in his view, and in the official view of most law enforcement officers trained in, by and for the Commonwealth of Virginia, the function of a police force was not to police a community, but to protect it. Academy training focuses on the sanctity of life and its preservation; officers are trained to be guardians rather than warriors.

To protect and serve a community is fundamentally different from simply enforcing its laws.

A badge that seen as a shield is fundamentally different from a badge seen simply as a symbol of authority.

In our small northern Virginia village that difference is still defined, now well into the oh-so-wise and everso-cynical 21st century, in terms of, of all things, honor.