Jacqueline Fries - I too applaud volunteer firemen like your dad. The world needs more volunteers willing to help their neighbors out.

My problem is that the current "public safety" community (including firemen, police and others) gets paid way more than 98% of the people who pay their salaries. They generally have much better benefits and their unions protect them from any sort of discipline, regardless of what they might have done to deserve discipline. This creates an elite that people are not allowed to complain about or demand salary or benefit reductions. And, yet, that "community" is bankrupting many property tax payers and is going to result in higher taxes on everyone.

So, while I applaud your father and think he deserves a parade, I don't support the blood-suckers who work on the public payroll and yet act as if the public is too good for them.