"Frank" wrote in
news:01c3ab23$4c84c300$0125250a@scpubymccaxpczis:

I don't believe that it is that simple. I know the danger is there, I
just choose to believe that I can manage it. Gambling with a hedged bet,
the hedge being assiduous attention to safety and procedures. Working
with "greens" (uncomfortable clothing meeting fire resistance
standards), respirator or breathing air (SCBA), metatarsal shoes, safety
glasses, fall harnesses, gloves, and hard hat.

I could take my pay up with my employer, and I'd be informed that I have
the option of quitting, just like police officers do.

The same is true of the police. They don't believe that they will be the
ones shot. Hopefully they won't. They hedge their bets with training and
discipline. The Pittsburgh Police are supposed to be some of the highest
paid officers in the nation. I don't believe that with major police
departments, the pay is so low that we need to woo the officers with
feigned attention. If the pay is so low, what attracts people to become
police anyway? Too many times the wrong thing attracts them. Power.

Of the police, let me say, I do not have the fortitude to see what they
see. The end results of rape, domestic violence, murder, auto accidents,
broken families, alcoholism, senior citizens living alone and calling
the police in the middle of the night from fear of a noise (the police
attempting to comfort such people), the ravages of drugs, mentally
disturbed poeple, suicides, abandoned children, etc. etc. etc.

I do not have the courage to do their jobs. In some ways it's easier to
risk your own life than it is to see others in the throes of loosing
theirs.

Even though, Worship should be reserved for God, not cops.

Of your Patriotism angle, read the following:

Hermann Goering, Hitler's Reich-Marshall, speaking at the Nuremberg
Trials following WWII

http://www.snopes.com/quotes/goering.htm

"Why of course the people don't want war. Why should some poor slob on a
farm want to risk his life in a war when the best he can get out of it
is to come back to his farm in one piece? Naturally the common people
don't want war neither in Russia, nor in England, nor for that matter in
Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the
country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to
drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist
dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no
voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders.
That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked,
and denounce the peacemakers For lack of patriotism and exposing the
country to danger. It works the same in any country."

By this one can infer that blind patriotism essentially makes people
chumps. Blind cop worship does the same thing.

Regards



Public servants are given the extra attention to help compensate for
their low pay. The public does not want to pay them more and they
don't want them to quit, thus the extra attention. With other
dangerous jobs, such as "Siloliquy's", the pay is not usually
determined by the public. In those jobs if they think their pay
doesn't compensate for the danger they should take it up with their
employer.

Their is also the patriotism angle that we saw with this last war. The
public can be made to appreciate the actions of the government more by
commending our heroes -- their sons and daughters.

It is nothing more than a tool.

Frank