Posted on 02/26/2011 10:36:44 AM PST by Stayfree
BTW, the majority of fire calls in today's America are for health issues dealing with the elderly and automobile collisions.. And most of those calls that are collision related, are minor in nature... Fact is, house fires are becoming a very rare thing....
95 percent of the time, you'll see them at scenes of minor or moderate traffic accidents..It's what they spend most of their time doing today.....NOT dragging people out of burning buildings....lol..
What firefighters do isn’t like going to the office and running the risk of being hit by a truck on the way there, we are talking about being told that they have to go into a dangerous situtation and put their lives on the line.
For everyone else, yeah, probably most of the calls are not dangerous ones, but when my grandad was doing it, mill and factory fires were a fairly regular occurrance, and on one occasion, he watched with his own eyes as his friend crashed through the floor. It was dangerous, they all understood that and it did involve having to put their lives on the line to protect others. It isn’t really in the same league as running the risk of an industrial accident...
They are not combat veterans and should not be treated as such, as you have suggested here...
That is absolutely ridicules...
As I recall, soldiers and servicemen are volunteers, and weren’t forced into the jobs they do either. I can respect their service and sacrifice, but I think that civilian emergency service personel who die in the line of duty are also entitled to be recognised and honoured for their sacrifice as well...
Tell that to the tens of thousands that died fighting in Vietnam and other countries.
Fire department employee are not military veterans, regardless of what you say...
The existance of the draft back then is not really relevent to the situation now, were all service members are volounteers.
But, now that you say it, back in WWII, people were also drafted into service as firefighters (and coalminers come to think of it) do they get to be treated with greater respect than volunteers then?
Look if you want to treat civilian fire employees like military veterans go for it...
Knock yourself out...
(wow)
Actually, I think I will. Now that I’ve been thinking about it, not all military veterans are the same. Some of them work in areas which aren’t exactly at the bleeding edge of the front line when they are in logistics or office clerks (not that their contribution is any less valuable, but why should they be considered better than people who ARE at the bleeding edge of civilian emergency work and suffer very real danger?)
In WWII, being a member of the Merchant Navy was actually more dangerous than any branch of the armed forces, being a drafted ‘Bevin Boy’ coal miner was also very filthy and dangerous work. They didn’t wear a snappy uniform, but without their contribution, we would all have been screwed just as much as we would have been without the fighting men. They got treated like non entities afterwards, and were denied their chance to march past the cenotaphs with the old soldiers, sailors and airmen until very recently.
Like I said, I’m not denigrating the service of members of the armed forces, but why do those who have worked in essential ‘civilian’ jobs and have often been killed as a result have to be treated as inferior beings and have their service denigrated by people like you?
Firefighters were put on the earth by God to give Policemen heroes.
Fact is all these people, be they cops or fire employees are WAY over paid, and are literally choking the private sector tax payers off...In fact, in many areas ya got two fire trucks, a rescue truck and paramedics respond to the typical call of some sick old lady...It's ridicules and we can no longer afford this type of overlapping bloated government waste...
Enough!
‘These people do a job like anyone else’
How quickly everyone forgets 9/11.
Nope, I work very much in the private sector. However, I believe that there are plenty of overpaid high and middle level civil servants who deserve to have their salaries cut before frontline public sector workers do (in Britain at least).
However, I do agree that public sector pay and conditions, even in professions I have a lot of respect for sometimes take the mickey and is unrealistic even in education, police and fire etc.
However, that aside, I do believe that someone who does die in the line of duty in a profession were putting yourself on the line to help people is normal and expected is worthy of equal respect and honour to those who swear loyalty and wear a military uniform. I don’t think it is unreasonable that if a fireman falls whilst tackling a blaze, he deserves a special funeral that might be more expensive and ceremonial than that of someone in who rides a desk and dies of natural causes or in some kind of accident. I certainly think they deserve it if some military person who dies in a car accident or natural causes off duty is entitled to it...
You might, but I'd bet the rent, your still connected to or are somehow benefiting somehow from someone on the government payroll or benefit teet...
No doubt about it.
Because the continued well-being and freedom of the United States is more important than my individual ass on fire. How do you not see that?
If you did, you’d be out on your ass outside your front door with the locks changed.
But still, even if I was a public sector worker, your argument is such an enormous strawman you could lock a virgin in it and set it on fire as a sacrifice to a pagan god.
Ad hominems are no substitute for a logical argument...
Not buying....No sale...
Believe whatever you want then mate, but I’m no liar and I have given no reason for you or anyone else to reasonably assume otherwise. I don’t know anything about you other than that you love strawmen and ad-hominems. That you have made clearly evident on this thread...
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