Lisa Murkowski: “In 1962, the Congress enacted and President Kennedy signed into law a joint resolution designating May 15 as Peace…”

“In 1962, the Congress enacted and President Kennedy signed into law a joint resolution designating May 15 as Peace Officers Memorial Day and the week in which May 15 falls as National Police Week. National Police Week is observed with numerous events here in our Nation's Capitol and parallel events in communities across the Nation. The two most moving of these events are the Peace Officers Memorial Day ceremony, on the Capitol grounds, and a candlelight vigil at the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial on Judiciary Square. At that candlelight vigil, the name of each officer who perished in the line of duty during the preceding year is read aloud to an assemblage numbering 10,000 or more. These events emphasize the heroic acts of the law enforcement officers who lost their lives in the line of duty. The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial bears the inscription that our fallen officers are not heroes for the way that they died but for the way they lived their lives. Heroes, as we know, live on forever in our hearts, our spirits and our collective memories But for the families, friends and co-workers of law enforcement officers who lost their lives in the line of duty, the grief and the loss are very real. The survivors of fallen law enforcement officers command our sympathy and our prayers. Yet after the funeral is over and news of the tragedy falls off of the front pages of the daily newspaper, the very hard and often solitary process of adjustment begins.…”