Within the past couple of years reports have surfaced out of
Tennessee describing two incidents of firemen standing by as homes burned
because the homes occupants did not pay annual fees to the county for
firefighting services. It is
acknowledged by this writer that firefighters and their organizations are
locally developed and maintained under various systems whether they be
volunteer or governmentally based. And
it is acknowledged that local governments and NGOs are increasingly stretched under
budgeting concerns. But it also true
that all of these organizations throughout the US ascribe to national standards
of organization and practices, and receive at least some money from county,
state, and federal sources in order to maintain continuity of standardized, quality
services, thereby protecting life and property.
It should follow that appropriate funding be made available from public
sources to satisfy the operational needs of these organizations.
When funds which are derived from taxes are diverted away
from the public good and are instead squandered on the endless wars of
imperialism, and the ability of the rich to make themselves richer, or when the
economic base of the country is undermined by gambling schemes initiated by
large corporate banks for the sake of the few, and corporate stockholders, or
when large multi-national corporations having bought our supposed elected
officials, collude with them to destroy organized labor and send jobs overseas
for the sake of their obscene profiteering, the people suffer and the state
becomes corrupt. Perversity reigns when
the moneys which should be available for the health and welfare of our
citizens, is instead found in the pockets of the few, but filthy rich.
There is an
incredible amount of wealth in this country, unfortunately we increasingly find
it in the hands of those who live like parasites on the backs of those who must
carry the burden. Part of that burden,
in this case, is the pain and heartache of watching ones home burn as those who
have the ability to remedy the situation stand by and do nothing.
This is disgraceful! We have lost our sense of civility
toward one another. We are so afraid that someone is going to get something
they don't "deserve", that someone is going to get one up on us. What
has become of the concept of civic duty? We have become more concerned with profiteering,
the imposition of morality and religiosity, than the extension of compassion
and care of one another.
We can't continue along this path and consider ourselves a
civilized nation. For what purpose does
a nation or a state serve but to act in accordance with the welfare of its citizens?
Is providing fire protection services not a perfect example of how to support
the greater good?
The conditions behind letting that home burn are in
opposition to maintaining the greater good of our citizens, the original
reasons for the establishment of this nation, and in fact, have become “destructive
of these ends”.
