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Comment by Barry Greer on August 13, 2012 at 11:15pm

Thanks Russ.  Well put.  People don't want to pay until they dial 9-1-1.  We just need to keep fighting the ignorance and voting.  

Comment by Russ on August 12, 2012 at 7:47pm

The main problem is in the word politics. After 911 the politicians were tripping overthemselves to cozy up to the fire service and i recall the blank check the president was talking about giving us to fight terrorism. I told a chief that if i were him, i'd get out that pornogrpahic budget we keep in the back of the desk with the stuff we know we can NEVER EVER get and submit it because 10 years from now we will be back to "fire department as usual" and the public will go back to believing we are a bunch of checker playing do nothings

 

based on where we are now i guess it took less time than that. how do i know?...i see fewer and fewer american flags flying in front of homes and businesses

the recession has decimated budgets and the politicians that couldnt get close enough to us back then are now using politics to dismantle everything. saleries, benifits, raisies, etc.

i agree with you saying that the safer taxpayers feel the less they will need a service but you use one of my favorite metaphores about the titanic but i see it as the guys in the engine room are telling the bridge that the ship is sinking and the captain looks down at his feet and says, "my feet aint wet, those guys are wrong"

I have a bumper sticker that says, "its never an emergency, untill its your ass" and in my opinion thats where we are now. We are in an emergency and the polticians are attacking us with politics playing us against the public with retoric like, you run more medical calls or "you are not running the big fires like you did years ago so we are not going to give you a new truck to replace the 30 year old one or let you hire new people

I had a commissoner ask our chief if we could build our own fire trucks. I was in the audience and snickering. When he called us on it i said, we'll start building our own fire trucks when the cops build their own guns

I think we get attacked because we are too vunerable in more areas than i am aware of. The perceptions attached to what we do is part of the problem but the attacks from the people that should be insuring that we are well funded and equipped is something i cannot accept and dont know how to fight except in the ballot box

I could not help but notice that there was some response criticism about the fire department and EMS response to recent mass casuilty incidents...i guess they really needed the money for terrorism after all