The National Reluctance to Pay Civil Serviceman

On an annual basis, many if not all citizens of Travis, Bastrop, Caldwell and Williamson counties
receive a plea in the mail, a letter from their local firefighters written in a way painstakingly reminiscent of a PBS marathon; "Please help, we need donations to continue keeping the collective ingrate that is our proximal neighborhood from becoming a blast furnace.". I paraphrase. Do you give them your spare change? I do, as guiltily as would I hand it over to a poor homeless veteran at a red light, and I should feel guilty, I think we all should, because that is both the technical and eventually the literal position the people our local keepers of freedom are forced into.

The police force, I've never met an officer I didn't get along with, I respect authority, but at the same time I will curse before I swear that I have ever met an officer that I respected personally. Oh no! T'was the badge, the gun, the position of power that I revere and curtsy to, not the people behind them. Why? In my unreserved opinion it takes a certain kind of select human being to want to carry that authority under those circumstances. Little pay, and dedication to upholding the law? I scoff, why should we expect that of people? The minimal wages and requirements which are brandished by those we turn the enforcement of justice over to are laughable restraints upon the innate human tendency to abuse power. Show me an entirely honest cop, I'll show you an overpaid Fireman.

With new budgets in order, I reprimand he who would not support a proposal to raise the bar for the men and women of law enforcement, and lower it for those in red. Pay them more! Encourage them to on one side perform the duties in their handbooks verbatim, and for the latter to continue being able to support their families while still keeping our behinds out of the flame. Why risk your life if the only appreciation you see for it is to carry a license to batter people who don't agree with you, or to slide down a shiny firepole?

Where would we get the money to up the ante for our uniformed warriors? Dare I say it should already be within the budget, but since it clearly isn't, I point my witching rods at vices. The last time Ross Perot ran for office, he highlighted the notion that even during hard times, we still purchase and consume things which are bad for us, there's no shame in it, and there certainly isn't any hope for wishing it away; Tax them! I'm a heavy smoker, I smoke a pack and a half a day, while I have a ready sack full of excuses to continue throwing away my money on something that will inevitably kill me, my latest justification is that the recent up in taxes on tobacco is going purely toward cancer research for children. By killing myself gradually I am atleast steadily giving hope for the innocent. Seem's like a pretty sharp avenue to take on an advanced number of issues if you ask me. Pay the salaries of our already tax-salaried titles by adding tax to tobacco, liquor, gambling- hell, legalize drugs and prostitution and tax those too. Why shouldn't we be paying the men and women who have our lives in their hands upwards of 60, 70, even 100,000 dollars per year? What's more, why not gather the funds for their raises from those things which are standard factors in the institution for which they are employed? Hundreds of thousands of fires are started from un-extinguished cigarettes, an extra 2 dollar per pack tax on them to pay the brave folks who are out there putting them out! Alcohol, I don't even need to begin to describe how much money we'd be throwing at the police if we were paying them by the hour to tackle conflicts which started at the bottom of a black label.

In short, what better time than the realignment of our nations political stances toward a more polished tax budget to take a look at a proper monetary appreciation for they, no, we, who benefit and are rewarded by it.