General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Boston firefighters dig through ashes to find fallen comrade's wedding ring [View all]DaveJ
(5,023 posts)I know what it's like swimming upstream against prerequisite behavior, where the common sense of your point is ignored in favor of group think. It's rare that anyone here sides with someone as they're being persecuted, so I try to say 'I agree' whenever I see a chance.
Not only are other jobs dangerous, but unhealthy as well. An office worker is forced to sit at a desk and often commute lengthy distances to work, the sedentary lifestyle can be torturous to the body, and in most cases there is no comfortable pension at the end of it all but instead destitution in retirement.
The topic of firefighters is interesting because truly, their job involves being exposed to a lot of chaos. Many are also paramedics and clean up after suicides and need to be able to respond to people dying in their community, and every other type of odd occurrence. But I would supposed most of them chose the job because it involves being paid; for example, my father in law was a fireman for less than 20 years (btw, also a republican) and now has a pension for the rest of his life that is over $80k. He didn't say "I want to be a hero," he said he specifically wanted a job where he could easily retire young. I would want to continue the practice of paying people well enough to retire, and paying the respect of lavish funerals to honor each and everyone's noble lives, not just because they are heros, but because they are human, and it's what (almost) everyone deserves.