An Apology, Of Sorts

In re-reading my last post, it occurs to me that I may have come off as condescending to my EMS brethren who happen to practice their profession within the fire department.

That was not my intention.

I’ve never made a secret of the fact that I am dubious of the dual role, firefighter/EMT delivery model, and I still hold the belief that many of our larger fire departments view EMS as nothing more than a means to justify firefighter jobs, and that many firefighters view EMS as a secondary job function, despite the fact that the call volume for most dual role departments skews 80/20 EMS calls versus fire suppression.

I also question the ability of your average EMT or firefighter to adequately serve two masters – fire suppression and medical care – and still do justice to both.

Still, that ignores the fact that I know a number of exceptional people who do manage to juggle both roles successfully, and call many of them friends.

The cause to re-evaluate the post came from commenter topv7051, although the impetus for this apology did not. In his comment, topv7051 states:

There are plenty of folks in your private/third service/EMS only agencies that have bad attitudes and poor performance, just like every other job. I could sit here and recount a hundred times that my crew and I have had to deal with incompetent private EMTs who seemed to disappear anytime a patient needed to be carried, but that doesn’t mean that you would do the same. Maybe you should stick to blogging about guns, Sumdood, and foreign made trucks. Whining about firefighters just demonstrates your jealousy and ignorance.

In my response to topv7051, I called him a troll, primarily because he never comments unless he has something ugly to say, like suggesting the fall of America is due to my choice of truck.

But in this case, he’s right, even though he stated his case like a jerk. But hey, we’re all jerks now and then, and sometimes when stating my case, I come off like a jerk.

So here you go, topv7051, my public apology for calling you a troll. I don’t much like your commenting style, and we’ll probably never agree on a damned thing, but your comment didn’t stoop to trollery, and you had a valid point.

Thanks for pointing that out.