Haily Simeral
English 1109 at 10:30am M-W
November 16th, 2020
Research Response Exercise:
The story I chose for this research exercise was Policewoman Pat Hays. I thought her story was inspiring to read and see the struggles she went through. When I read the story and when I was looking for what made her believe this tough job was her calling, it was when she would talk about her cases she got assigned in this story. She said, "I retired in 2001, but in the thirty-four years I was on the force, it wasn't all adversity or I would have been really stupid to have kept that job. It's kind of a calling. I really enjoyed helping people. I would have done it forever" (Calling 161).
I learned from Pat Hays that if you truly love something and you know in your heart that you succeed in that, then what is it to anyone else? Why should I care if someone has an opinion on my path in life? That's what happened to Pat with men in the force thinking she's sleeping with the bosses to get where she's at. From wbez.org she said, "He accused her of sleeping with one of the bosses. She kept quiet. He kept pestering her and finally asked, who are you sleeping with? Hays says she looked at him in the eyes and said, All of them" (Healy 2015).
I also learned that there will be things about the job you don't enjoy, but that doesn't mean the entirety of the job is awful. Pat Hays said in this article that she didn't retire because of the job itself she said, "It was because I couldn't stand all of the nonsense that the bosses were going through. I still like solving people's problems. I would've done it forever. It was the paramilitary mindset I had the most trouble with" (Healy 2015). She didn't like the feeling of the military mindset her job put her through to almost not have humanity.
Hailey, the militeration of local and community police forces has been a huge trend since I was in college, and your post really shows how even the way women look in uniform has gotten so much more "tactical" and also militaristic. Thanks for posting and gave me more to think about.
ReplyDeleteI chose Pat too, and your picture really drew me into this post. I find it very weird (but not shocking) that women in the 60s that were police officers had to wear skirts and silly hats. I agree with and loved everything you wrote, Pat definitely never cared what anyone thought about her as long as she was doing what she loved and I think she's set a great example!
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