Hella

Millenials: cool cool no doubt

Me: I was born in 2002

Millenials:

This flag represents the “Thin Blue Line”.  

The blue line represents law enforcement standing between the people and anarchy, criminals, and violence.

It does not stand for anything hateful, racist, discriminatory, homophobic, sexist, or anything other _ist, _ism, _phobia, or _ation you can think of.

Those who utilize this flag or symbol and derivatives of do so because they are expressing solidarity with law enforcement other first responders, respect, gratitude, and simply support to the men and women who come from all varieties of creeds, races, and beliefs. It is also not uncommon to use it to express mourning over the death or murder of someone in law enforcement. 

Before the flag, the symbol was simply this:

And it would later expand to include other aspects of law enforcement and first responders.  Red for Firefighters, Silver for Corrections Officers, Gold for Dispatchers/Communications Officers, White for EMS, and Orange for Search and Rescue.

There are versions which include many “Thin Lines” to show respect for multiple agencies.  I for one have this one on the back of my car.

Before all this PC nonsense, people used these symbols as a means of support, respect, and encouragement.  “We see you, we appreciate you, we are thankful to you.”  It never had anything to do with race, hate, power, control, or anything negative. 

 These symbols have existed long before the mobs called them racist or symbols of ‘white power’ and no matter how you attempt to make them represent something evil, it will not work or change what it stands for:

Family. Brotherhood. Sisterhood. Family.

If you ever work as a first responder or in that community, be it law enforcement, EMS, firefighting, SAR, dispatch..you see hell, sometimes daily. You see your own hell, the hell of others. You see blood, death, torture, cruelty and evil. Lives are risked. Lives are lost - sometimes it could be your own, or someone you were tasked with protecting. Someone you worked side by side with. It’s a calling, and it’s both heaven and hell for those involved.  All of us are a family, and this is how we reach out to each other to tell each other something simple:

“Brother or Sister, I have your back.”

If you choose to see that as racist, demeaning, hateful, or anything else negative, especially after being explained otherwise, then there is no helping you - unless it’s someone from our community.

Regardless of what you think of us, how you hate or love us, we will always come to help you even if it means getting hurt to do so, or even killed.

That’s our family, and this is our symbol. It will never mean hatred.

For those who still think otherwise and believe yourself good and honest people, I have a challenge for you.  The next time you see someone, be they IRL or online and they’re sporting the thin blue line, ask them calmly to tell you what it means to them.  Why it’s important to them. What they think of it.

I think you’ll live happier knowing that something you believed was hateful is actually out to do good.