It is so frustrating to watch professional athletes get paid millions of dollars, while our police officers and teachers are getting paid so little in comparison. It is ridiculous!

One day while I was filling out my FAFSA application and it asked me to enter in the salary that dad makes a year. I went to get the records and I couldn’t believe my eyes. I looked to my mom and said “Are you serious? You’re joking.” She told me that the forms sitting in my hands are the real deal. My dad has been a police officer for 27 years and loves what he does and after seeing the records, I was flabbergasted at the little amount of money my dad makes as a police officer.

In today’s world being a police officer is much harder than it was 15 years ago. The crime rate was lower and fewer police officers were being shot at. When I watch the ten o’clock news there is bound to be a report that a police officer has been shot or killed.

It is insane to me that people are shooting police officers when they are just trying to protect people from harm.  In some cases, officers have to shoot at someone because it is a part of the job, but that doesn’t mean that people should shoot back.

Police officers have friends and families just like you. They are not different from you or me, they live their everyday life how they want. However, when that uniform is put on with their badge over their heart, you better believe they transform into superheros, as I like to call them.

Now, I might be a little biased, considering my dad is a police officer, but that doesn’t make the facts any different. They have a duty to protect and serve, so let them do that.

Teachers on the other hand are our saving grace. They are the ones who teach kids the skills about surviving in the real world. We don’t give them enough credit for everything they do. They get paid way less than professional athletes.

Who do you think taught those athletes how to read and write or how to play the sport they are playing now? Teachers; and they only get paid a small fraction of what an athlete makes for giving a lifetime worth of knowledge.

I have a hard time believing this disparity.  In my eyes I understand that people like watching sports, but when athletes are getting paid millions of dollars to run a football down the field or shoot a basketball or puck into a net, I get so confused.

Why are people paying millions of dollars for something like that when some of that money could be given to teachers or used for school supplies? I am so puzzled on this concept. The majority of your life is spent around these knowledge seekers that want to share what they know so you can pass it on.

It is like the water cycle. Learning never stops, it goes in circles from generation to generation. I feel with all the work teachers put in to their jobs each year they should get out what they put in.

This week on the news it was announced that one school district is going to have students do the janitorial work in an attempt to cut expenses.  The story that followed was about the new stadium where the professional baseball team will practice. The disparity was striking.  New stadium, new equipment, no janitors for schools.

Overall I am just flabbergasted! Why are owners of these teams paying these athletes millions of dollars for people to watch them run or skate an object back and forth? I mean, I enjoy watching sports, don’t get me wrong, but why are we paying them so much money to do it? I can’t wrap that concept around my brain and don’t get me start on the music industry.