A sad chapter in New York’s storied history ended with some relief for the families of the two slain NYPD officers.

The Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation reached its goal of $800,000 to go towards the officers mortgages.

According to CBS News, half of all contributions came from overseas–Italy, England, Australia, Canada and Ireland–including former New York City Mayor Rudy Giulani and 2016 presidential hopeful Jeb Bush pooling in money for the two fallen police officers.

Widows of Wenjian Liu, the main breadwinner for his family, and Rafael Ramos can pocket any additional money raised.

The two officers were gunned down in their police cars in Brooklyn by a deranged man with a vendetta against cops. The gunman shot himself after fleeing the scene of the crime.

With so much contention in the air with police vs. the mayor and citizens vs. police, it’s nice to see people unify around the officers families. And give them the support they need to carry on.

<<stepping on my soapbox>>

Despite all the back-turning, finger pointing and fighting go on as a result of anger and confusion. One thing is clear: citizens need fair and level-headed police officers and police officers need citizens to respect them. How else can we live in a civilized society?

And in order to achieve that there needs to be dialogue and change.

Yes, we all have loud voices, but we also need attentive ears.

<<stepping down>>