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Public service: Plenty of sacrifice, little thanks
Last week this newspaper celebrated our public servants. This week and next week, we will celebrate more. Some choose public service as a career path, and others simply volunteer and do something else for a day job. But for those involved in public safety, firefighting or emergency health services, there are not enough ways to say thank you.
Those of us with "regular" jobs would have a hard time imagining what it is like to be one of these public servants. For those in law enforcement, whether with the sheriff's department, police department DPS or the Border Patrol, the job starts with weeks of really tough training. Not everyone gets through it.
And when it is over and they report for work, the reality is that any call - a traffic stop, a fight, a domestic dispute - could turn deadly for them. How many of us would be willing to work for so-so pay knowing the job could be lethal? Not many. And on top of that, when we get pulled over, we let them see how annoyed we are.
For firefighters, the training is equally arduous, and it is coupled with the need for physical strength. Our firefighters are volunteers. They have a regular job, but when that alarm rings, they drop everything to risk their lives so your home is saved. There is satisfaction in rendering that kind of service, but there is a terrible responsibility, too. If they don't get it right, we could lose everything, including our lives.
The same can be said for emergency medical personnel. The training is long and difficult, the pay is not great, but the responsibility is tremendous. We depend on them to save us when we cannot save ourselves. And the price for them can be very high. We need look no further than the recent medical helicopter crash in Tucson where a Cochise County based team lost their lives.
So the next time you see one of these individuals in town, stop and thank him or her for all they do for us. And if you are speeding or run that red light and get pulled over, remember that what is annoying from you vantage point is incredibly risky from theirs. We are lucky that we have folks willing to sacrifice so much for us.
Those of us with "regular" jobs would have a hard time imagining what it is like to be one of these public servants. For those in law enforcement, whether with the sheriff's department, police department DPS or the Border Patrol, the job starts with weeks of really tough training. Not everyone gets through it.
And when it is over and they report for work, the reality is that any call - a traffic stop, a fight, a domestic dispute - could turn deadly for them. How many of us would be willing to work for so-so pay knowing the job could be lethal? Not many. And on top of that, when we get pulled over, we let them see how annoyed we are.
For firefighters, the training is equally arduous, and it is coupled with the need for physical strength. Our firefighters are volunteers. They have a regular job, but when that alarm rings, they drop everything to risk their lives so your home is saved. There is satisfaction in rendering that kind of service, but there is a terrible responsibility, too. If they don't get it right, we could lose everything, including our lives.
The same can be said for emergency medical personnel. The training is long and difficult, the pay is not great, but the responsibility is tremendous. We depend on them to save us when we cannot save ourselves. And the price for them can be very high. We need look no further than the recent medical helicopter crash in Tucson where a Cochise County based team lost their lives.
So the next time you see one of these individuals in town, stop and thank him or her for all they do for us. And if you are speeding or run that red light and get pulled over, remember that what is annoying from you vantage point is incredibly risky from theirs. We are lucky that we have folks willing to sacrifice so much for us.
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