Sorry if you missed National Backward Day. It was in January.
When my wife was teaching, her elementary schools always observed National Backward Day, a brief respite that encourages people to do things in reverse or unconventional ways.
You don’t have to be a kid to celebrate it. All ages are welcome to break routine and engage in activities with a unique twist.
Participants wear clothes backward, eat meals in reverse order or do everyday tasks in unconventional ways.
This year, President Donald Trump honored Backward Day by pardoning Jan. 6 criminals. He then began a process to fire law enforcement officials who imprisoned those hoodlums.
Well-played, sir. That’s pretty backward.
Now you might think I’ve careened out of my lane. How can I talk politics in a religion column?
I think it falls under the category of standing up for my friends.
I have several friends in the FBI. Those friendships began with two official visits.
The first came when a preschool director told the FBI that my newly adopted daughter resembled a missing child on a milk carton photo. The milk carton thing was a 1990s public service to raise awareness for missing kids.
The report triggered a visit to our Stockton home from an FBI agent seeking proof that we adopted our 3-year-old daughter Brittney. We gave him files of proof. No problem.
But my new friend didn’t close the investigation until he interviewed social workers and neighbors.
Overboard? Maybe. But the agent was looking out for my family and the missing child’s family. When someone does that, they become my friend.
On the second occasion, 20 years later, Agent Steve Dupre knocked on my door. He needed our Elk Grove house to surveil a neighbor who used robbery money to buy the house.
Steve became my friend.
In 2015, Steve invited me to make more FBI friends by joining the FBI Citizens Academy.
For six weeks, we spent three hours every Wednesday at the Sacramento FBI office, hearing agents lecture about famous crimes, surveillance techniques, bomb making and home terror organizations.
We learned about skinheads and militia movements. Scary class, but I made lots of new friends.
One week, Steve announced our class would visit a gun range. I told Steve no thanks.
“Why is that?” he asked.
I described the gun trauma I experienced in the aftermath of a mass shooting at a Stockton school.
Steve promised me it was OK either way. “If you go, you don’t have to shoot.” he said. “But if you shoot, I’ll stand with you and talk you through it.”
I went and shot. It was hard, but Steve stood shoulder-to-shoulder with me.
We finished the class with an optional field trip to the FBI academy in Virginia, where we were welcomed by then-FBI director James Comey.
Comey, a man of faith, used the FBI motto as an outline for his talk.
“Fidelity, bravery, integrity.”
During these backward days, there are forces seeking to locate and identify agents who deployed these principles in their Jan. 6 investigations.
I pray the search is unsuccessful.
Meantime, I’ll tell you where this chaplain is located. He stands with his friends.
Norris Burkes can be reached at comment@thechaplain.net. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram: @insidesacramento. Burkes is available for public speaking at civic organizations, places of worship, veterans groups and more. For details and fees, visit thechaplain.net.
