Black Dad Takes Daughter to Meet Cops, Teaches Her ‘Love & Compassion Leaves No Room for Hate’

Black Dad Takes Daughter to Meet Cops, Teaches Her ‘Love & Compassion Leaves No Room for Hate’
Donnell, daughter Luna, and three sheriff's officers (Courtesy of Donnell Goss)
Michael Wing
8/21/2020
Updated:
2/8/2021

It truly is a crazy world we live in. But it’s even crazier for our kids.

Adults confront that craziness each day, armored with life lessons (respect others, the Golden rule), often hard-learned through painful stumbling, getting back up, and carrying on in the journey of life. That’s how many of us made it this far—those of us who did make it at all. These days, children, faced with that same craziness, arguably have it much worse than adults ever did.

Predators are lurking everywhere: online, at our schools, on the streets; and toxic, life-ruining influences abound. Ill-meaning adults, like wolves in sheep’s clothes, have poisoned the proverbial water of our society with child-harming trends and ideas: normalizing pedophilia, and activist ideologies seeking to recruit kids into radical (political) movements at increasingly young ages. And then there are all the things children see online and in the news: rioting, police brutality, hate, division, and much, much more.

But the next greatest challenge rests on the shoulders of the parents.

A memorial and mural that honors George Floyd at the Scott Food Mart corner store in Houston's Third Ward, where Mr. Floyd grew up on June 8, 2020, in Houston, Texas. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
A memorial and mural that honors George Floyd at the Scott Food Mart corner store in Houston's Third Ward, where Mr. Floyd grew up on June 8, 2020, in Houston, Texas. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

It is the parents who must give support, wisdom, and love so those children will be equipped to forge, through their own painful stumbling, their OWN suit of armor and fight for the cause of goodness in a world filled with wickedness. Good parents who love their children and want to teach them to be good people have always been the “silent majority” throughout history, and have allowed civilization to reach where we are—though you might not think it to watch the news these days.

Donnell Goss and his daughter Luna are a good reminder of this underlying truth.

Goss, a fitness instructor with his own brand from Denver, Colorado, and his 6-year-old daughter went viral on Facebook for a selfie they took with a group of local sheriff’s officers whom they randomly encountered on the way to a fitness group. Donnell is black, and his daughter, Luna, who is half black, was feeling anxious and confused about all of the chaos going on in the world right now: the rioting, racial division, hate, and what happened to George Floyd.

Donnell decided to teach his daughter an important lesson on how to confront all that: not with hate, but with love.

Donnell's daughter Luna (Courtesy of <a href="https://www.facebook.com/dj.goss">Donnell Goss</a>)
Donnell's daughter Luna (Courtesy of Donnell Goss)

“Luna mentioned George Floyd’s murder and wondered why the cops did what they did,” Donnell told The Epoch Times. “I had to explain to her that just like there’s good apples and bad apples? There are good cops and bad cops and that’s something we can’t control. We CAN control how we conduct ourselves throughout life and we do that through love and respect and never being fearful of things we don’t understand.”

That’s when they parked their car and happened to see the three officers hanging out in the parking lot nearby. “At that moment I knew that this was a perfect teaching moment! I couldn’t have asked for a better-timed situation!” the dad said.

Donnell took Luna to meet the officers.

Donnell, daughter Luna, and three sheriff's officers (Courtesy of <a href="https://www.facebook.com/dj.goss">Donnell Goss</a>)
Donnell, daughter Luna, and three sheriff's officers (Courtesy of Donnell Goss)

“As a father, I felt it was my job to debunk that fear by bringing her over to meet guys,” Donnell said. “That’s when the gifts started rolling in from the officers ... stickers, teddy bears, badges, they gave any and every little thing to Luna on that day in the parking lot, and then we took a selfie.”

And what an uplifting selfie it was!

Everyone in the photo was all smiles, and it drove home a point that “not everything you see in the news is real.” Donnell posted it on Facebook on June 4, and it went viral, garnering 79,000 likes with tens of thousands of shares to date. In his post, the father captioned the transcendental parenting experience, and how compassion won the day:
“I started to notice Luna’s dialogue over the past few days and in her confused little 6-year-old brain, she didn’t know whether or not if she should like cops. She started questioning all things in regards to how to feel toward cops (rightfully so).
“As her father, I feel it is my job not to fuel that confusion but find a SOLUTION to her dilemma. With everything being routed in fear right now, I chose to bring Luna over to these 3 officers and they couldn’t have proven my point any clearer.” Donnell’s lesson was something that is so common sense we sometimes lose sight of it. We all know “2 wrongs never make a right,“ and ”you never meet hate with hate,” as Donnell captioned.

He then shared some more fatherly wisdom worth remembering: “When you meet hate with love and compassion, there’s no room for that hate to grow.”

Donnell and daughter Luna (Courtesy of <a href="https://www.facebook.com/dj.goss">Donnell Goss</a>)
Donnell and daughter Luna (Courtesy of Donnell Goss)
This story was last updated in August 2020.
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Michael Wing is a writer and editor based in Calgary, Canada, where he was born and educated in the arts. He writes mainly on culture, human interest, and trending news.
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