Public Opinion and Damage Control

As was feared, anytime a bad light is shown on a public organization, the public gets a bad taste about that organization. It's already showing by what I can tell from the posts following the article in the Bradenton Herald Saturday, October 30th by Sara Kennedy, who did  a fine job of quoting me after our lengthy conversation!  Check it out at: http://www.bradenton.com/2010/10/30/2696259_p2/southern-manatee-fire-race-heats.html#disqus_thread  called "Southern Manatee Heats Up".

Money always gets everyone in an uproar. How much someone has, how much someone's getting, how much someone is paid, if they're paid too much, if they're worth what they're paid and on and on and on ad nauseum!  It's truly a sad state of our world that we've all become such experts at everything when we really know nothing. I've learned over the years to really look hard at something before I decide I know alot about it. But today with the internet and forums and everyone's got a voice and an opinion, it's like everyone's 15 minutes of fame is more important than being remotely accurate.

i guess that's why campaign's like the one I've been fighting against all this past week get going. They know all you have to do is "sound" like you're  the real deal and everyone will think you are; or talk like it's all true and no one will realize it's not. We're such a lazy society! The best con game around is to act like it is true and everyone will think so. Sad.

But I have to admit to being appalled at the comments follwing this article. Comments all focused on the chief's pension, or the weight of our government employees & the time they leave their jobs, or how firefighters are not deserving of a pension, or the worst ones, in my opinion, "The salaries, benefits, and pensions of fireman is dishonorable and literally thievery." and "I AM AN AMERICAN TAXPAYER AND THE FIREMEN AND THE GOVERNMENT ARE HERE TO SUPPORT ME. I AM NOT HERE TO SUPPORT THEM."  When will we realilze WE ARE the government and we support each other in an interdependent mutuality? Where did the respect go?

I think it's safe to say that my life is in no danger (save the odds of being on the road 100% more than the average person) selling from business to business but that a firefighter's life goes on the line every time he answers a call. Yes, every time, because even answering a traffic accident can result in tragedy to rescue workers on the roadways.   

Not only that, firefighters suffer more health issues due to the things they are exposed to, and the stressors of their profession. They see things at crash scenes, burned victims, death on a regular basis that the average person doesn't come close to seeing in a life time.  What firefighters train for and spend their lives doing, (who for some NEVER live to see retirement), cannot be fathomed by the general public but is always expected 100% at all times! Public servants like our firefighters, police and emergency personnel have to have a heart for this work or they couldn't do it. The public should have a heart for them.

Have we as a society grown so cold as to totally ignore each other's humanity only to equate it with a dollar sign and our own system of value? Or can we only respond to the sensational and newsworthy like September 11, 2001 catastrophe?  Do we want to have a fire department like the one broadcasted about in Tennessee that had to coldly watch a man's pets die in his house fire because he didn't pay the fees according to their county regulations, following the letter of the law?  Such legalism will only lead to a disaster. 

We can spend major dollars on our favorite sports team, our preferred brand of technology, clothes or car and travel the world at any cost which all support many people far wealthier than any firefighter could dream of being AND none of them will make a hill of beans difference when it comes to your life or your house or your family in an emergency. But it's the same thing: we support our capitalism but fail to support that which saves us ... literally! Now just how ignorant and foolish is that?

But we can only blame ourselves in the long run. Somehow, we have not educated the public enough on the values of a fire district and department to look after them. We have allowed the sensationlism of the lies of a smear campaign to get away and sway the public in the media and their door-to-door blitz'. Deception goes hand in hand with corruption and it was played very well through out all this. If the public thinks voting in union backed candidates is the way to go to protect anyone, they are sadly mistaken.

It will be the first step to our county wide merger into one big unit with one board taking it out of the hands of NOT LITTLE FIEFDOMS as some would like to call it, but directly out of the immediate voters hands. So that COUNTYWIDE we'd be at the mercy of ONE BOARD and ONE COUNTY decision. Check with Sarasota, last I heard, it's barely working well and not at all more cost efficient. It's sad to see so many people missing the boat all at once. Please voters, if you don't know what's going on now, trust someone to steer you correctly and then start following and paying attention. Otherwise, start saving up to pay your taxes as you can be assured they'll be going up!

VOTE Anderson, Solomon and Ranney TODAY for TODAY's Fire District's future!