I know many of us here in Kankakee County have been somber since Wednesday, December 29th, 2021. The main cause of that being a shooting that murdered Bradley Police Sergeant Marlene Rittmanic and injured, Officer Tyler Bailey.

I posted a comment on one of The Daily Journal articles on Facebook about how many area towns were lighting up the color blue to support the fallen officers. My comment read, “It truly is a wonderful thing to see our community come together in a time of need.”

A person replied to my comment saying, “I am truly sorry for the loss of the police officer. My condolences and for the other police officer my prayers are for him getting better. But Kankakee has never came together. And it may appear it is to you, I respect that.”

“But Kankakee has never came together.”

Ever since I read that that persons reply, that sentence has stuck with me. I can’t seem to shake it from my mind. I think the reason being is that day in and day out, I read comments like this all day long on social media about Kankakee County. I’m sure you see a lot of the same remarks yourself.

Every single day, our community comes together to support a person, a family, or organization in need. Some days it’s more noticeable than others. You and I could sit down and write a book about all the times Kankakee County has come together to support each other.

You know as well as I do that the person’s statement above is extremely negative. We need to retrain our minds to prevent thinking this way about Kankakee County. The only way Kankakee will flourish is by injecting as much positivity into it’s people and places as much as possible. I’m not saying to ignore all the bad things that happen. All of those things need to be addressed properly. But what I’m saying is, the more we embrace the good things, the more we will thrive as a community.

I think the bottom line is, we all need to take better care of each other. This goes for myself too. I’m not a saint but I’m trying to do better.

Much Love,

Jake LaMore