Honoring the “Brotherhood of Blue”

By
“Line-of-duty deaths jumped by 37% in 2010.” – CNN

According to the Officer Down Memorial page, this accounts for 122 men and women who died while in the line of duty during 2010.  The statistics for 2011 show an increase of 17% in gunfire deaths, and a 6% increase in line of duty deaths.

These men and women gave their lives while serving and protecting us.

And this number could be combined with the many more who have fallen while in the line of duty around the world.  This number also doesn’t reflect the number of officers injured, some seriously (life changing).


It makes my office job sound like a dream.  But every member of the “brotherhood of blue” knows the risks involved.  No call or traffic stop is routine.  No end of shift taken for granted.   So why do they do it?

Courage, and a strong belief in finding justice.

They ask the questions most of us wouldn’t want to.  They uncover what most of us wish to believe doesn’t exist.  They bring peace to where there’s chaos.  They make our towns and cities safer places to live.

They don’t work by the clock.  They don’t measure their shift in hours, they measure it by successes.  Their jobs are exhausting and most days they receive little appreciation for it.

Please join me in saying “Thank you” to these men and women.  And also “Thank you” to the families who support their husbands, wives, mothers, fathers, sons, and daughters as they serve us.

It’s due to these fine men and women belonging to the “brotherhood of blue” that I was inspired to write my Madison Knight series.  She is driven to find justice for the victims, and courageous enough to uncover the truth and make the guilty pay.

Meet Madison Knight.  Download Ties That Bind, the first in a stand-alone series, here for Kindle.  Or it is also available in print here.

Please also be sure to visit the Officer Down Memorial Page which honors the officers killed in the US while in the line of duty.

Comments

  1. ~Charity~September 2, 2011 at 10:49 AM

    Thanks for posting. I think we take them for granted sometimes. A very big THANK YOU to them all!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Jennifer ChaseSeptember 2, 2011 at 1:56 PM

    Great post! Thank you for bringing to our attention.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Carolyn ArnoldSeptember 2, 2011 at 5:29 PM

    Thank you Charity and Jennifer. They very much deserve it!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Rob (Sharky) PrunedaSeptember 2, 2011 at 8:51 PM

    You're right, Carolyn. We do take the men and women in uniform for granted all too often. Thank you for posting and reminding us to appreciate our local police officers for everything they do for our communities.

    ~ Rob

    ReplyDelete
  5. Carolyn ArnoldSeptember 3, 2011 at 11:39 AM

    Thank you for your comment Rob. It is so very true. I was recently asked for an interview what inspired me to write Madison Knight, and after giving it thought realized the real-life heroes were why.

    ReplyDelete
  6. AnonymousSeptember 4, 2011 at 11:17 AM

    With so much wrong with our world, it is important to recall just how many men and women keep the social order on track without recognition: police officers, fire fighters, teachers, parents, pastors, students, etc. The preponderance of people do the right thing because it is the right thing to do. The bad news on television and on the internet is popular so it's what we see. Thanking people who give the supreme courtesy of doing their job without demanding recognition is the ultimate honor that can be bestowed.

    @SaltonLee

    ReplyDelete
  7. Stacey DonaldsonSeptember 4, 2011 at 3:26 PM

    It's so easy to forget the amount of sacrifice and courage that it takes to be a police officer. I am grateful for every man and woman who is brave and selfless enough to protect and to serve.

    Thank you so much for this post - we all need to be reminded of all the people who work tirelessly to afford us peace of mind.

    Stacey @ www.thewritetomakealiving.com

    ReplyDelete
  8. Carolyn ArnoldSeptember 4, 2011 at 5:32 PM

    @SaltonLee that is so very true. It's not just police officers that make sacrifices of themselves in order to serve others. I also like your point "doing their job without demanding recognition" - what truly wonderful people!

    And Stacey we really don't have any way of knowing all they do to keep us safe, to allow us that peace of mind.

    Thank you both for your comments.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thank you for taking the time to make a comment.

Popular posts from this blog

When Family Doesn't Support Your Writing

By
If you can empathize with the title of this post, then you're not alone.  So many writers, myself included, can honestly say they have family members who don't support their writing.  Some may go so far as to tell you they don't even want to hear about what you're working on, what you've done, what your goals are.  That hurts. But think about it this way, in some ways is writing any different that an other life decisions your family may not agree with?  I'm sure, if you're like me, you get very defensive when it comes to your writing.  In fact, I'm not going to deny that it places an iron wedge in the relationships.  After all, if your focus in life is your writing, and they ask so what have you been up to ...what are you supposed to do lie, remain quiet, answer another way even though you're so excited about your current WIP you'd tell a stranger?  Ticking clocks are heard in the background while you decide.
Read more

A Big Decision...

By
Image
For those of you who know me, and follow me on Twitter, you may be aware that I’ve been debating whether to pursue publishing traditionally, or take the plunge and self-publish.  With all the “buzz” on the internet, and after great consideration, I have decided to go ahead and self-publish. I had asked myself, does this mean I’m giving up ?  And, the answer is irrevocably no.  Self-publishing used to carry a type of stigma that somehow labelled the work as adhering to a lower standard, but things have changed.  Authors are taking pride in their work like never before, and just because of the increasing ease to self-publishing, they’re not allowing this to affect the quality. In making my decision, I also considered the fact that just because a book is published traditionally it doesn’t mean that it will meet with success.  Many self-published books have received awards, honourable mentions, and have met with even more-than-modest sales.  In fact, there’s ...
Read more

Write What You Love

By
We've all heard the advice, write what you know.  There's been a lot of debate over this piece of advice.  Some see it as valid direction while others argue that there wouldn't be any books if we just wrote what we know.  For example, how many mystery novels are written by real-life detectives?  And, I guess that advice is null when it comes to fantasy genres, and historical fictional works.  No fairy from Neverland wrote a book, and no one from over a hundred years ago can write a book currently.   But, this doesn't mean that we can get sloppy, in fact more work is involved, and this is why writing what we love supersedes all, in my opinion.  How else would we get motivated, and stay motivated to see a novel through to the end? In fact isn't it love for what we’re writing what pushes us through to the conclusion even when we may find the interest in our book weaning, or through the rough middles?  Isn't it the love for what we're writing that f...
Read more