I was an incognito attendee of the police-firefighter interaction with young New Londoners at Mahan Park, Aug. 12, passing a friend's child off as my own. The pre-school age kid had a great time bouncing like a trampoliner, ingesting treats and feeling like he had made new friends wearing cool uniforms.

These are such terribly trying times for both police and minority communities, the rampant distrust so thick you can slice it with a knife. But New London's first responders went the extra mile to demonstrate to impressionable children that they too are, ultimately, normal human beings behind the stern and forceful exteriors they must project to do their work efficiently. There is simply no overestimating what sociological dividends will in future fructify because of their effort that was, in its own way, as heroic as their most dramatic days on their dangerous jobs.

Let's hope New Londoners retain an appreciation for the microcosmic influence cops and firefighters had on our children in Mahan Park on a sweltering August day that, as hot as it was, could not match the warmth in all those human hearts.

Martin Crane

New London