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Comment by Brian Dumser on December 31, 2009 at 5:15pm

I would have asked him if he thought the world would be better if we all just stopped being firefighters, volunteer or otherwise.

Comment by Art "ChiefReason" Goodrich on December 31, 2009 at 4:31pm

Every town has a town idiot.
I see you have met your's.
Don't try to reason with him.
Try ice cream.

Comment by Daniel J Rocha on December 31, 2009 at 2:39pm

Agreed with Beverly.

Furthermore, no one has a right to say what you are capable of doing. Do not let it get to you.
With every life saved, every blaze conquered, every situation encountered, every bit of experience gained, and even in day to day life activities, we do make changes in the world, even if it's a baby step at a time.

Keep it up. =)

Comment by Jack/dt on December 31, 2009 at 12:02pm

Was he 15, 50 or 105?
If you were in a paint store and were buying 100 gallons of paint, maybe he thought you were going to change the world by painting it another color.

Maybe he has poor eyesight and he thought the shirt said you were some kind of nature or environmental rescue organization.

Comment by Beverly on December 31, 2009 at 7:46am

Don't take it all that personally...this guy may have been having a bad day, may have had a prior bad experience with firefighters(real or imagined) ...or maybe he was mentally ill. If you do your job professionally (yes even volunteers are professional, we just are unpaid), represent your department and the fire service in a respectful manner and treat every call as important than you should just ignore him and instead think of all the folks who have ever told you thank you!

Comment by Paul Montpetit on December 31, 2009 at 6:21am

Life and people are NOT fair...so get over it and even expect it....all we can do is try and educate people and if that doesn't work use economics....Ie..."Sir, your insurance rates are lower because we do what we do." Or my favorite..."Sir, I got a 50% raise this year for what we did last year....By the way....I am a Volunteer."