By Performing Volunteer Work, Are You A Hero?

[MainerMikeBrown]

In my opinion, a hero isn't a famous sports athlete.

Instead, how I define a hero is someone who risks his or her life to save others.

And that's what volunteer fire fighters do (as well as the paid ones, for that matter). They often risk their lives to fight fires and save people trapped in those fires.

They certainly have my respect because of it, that's for sure.

[George K]

If you think of yourself as a hero, you're not.

If you do good things, and others think you're a hero, that's a totally different thing.

[Doctor Phibes]

@George-K said in By Performing Volunteer Work, Are You A Hero?:

If you think of yourself as a hero, you're not.

Damn. Now I have to sell the cape.

[Catseye3]

When I was a member of my local rescue squad, the one thing we all hated above all else was being referred to as heroes in public. It was nothing but embarrassing. Some official would say, "And every one of you are heroes, one and all", and we'd stare at the ground and mumble and kick dirt and wish we were anywhere else.

Because we knew what bullshit it was.

[Jolly]

@Doctor-Phibes said in By Performing Volunteer Work, Are You A Hero?:

@George-K said in By Performing Volunteer Work, Are You A Hero?:

If you think of yourself as a hero, you're not.

Damn. Now I have to sell the cape.

You can keep the tights.

[LuFins Dad]

Most volunteer firemen I know were the ones setting the fires…

[Horace]

@LuFins-Dad said in By Performing Volunteer Work, Are You A Hero?:

Most volunteer firemen I know were the ones setting the fires…

They are mostly living a dream, and hoping they can parlay it into the choicest public servant job in the country.

[Doctor Phibes]

@Horace said in By Performing Volunteer Work, Are You A Hero?:

@LuFins-Dad said in By Performing Volunteer Work, Are You A Hero?:

Most volunteer firemen I know were the ones setting the fires…

They are mostly living a dream, and hoping they can parlay it into the choicest public servant job in the country.

I once attended a week of conferences held by fire chiefs. It was an interesting culture. They’d managed to convince themselves that they had the most dangerous job in the world. Every meeting was preceded by a minutes silence for those who’d fallen in the line of duty. Nobody ever does that for farm workers or fishermen. Trying to explain the intricacies of explosion risk to them was quite challenging.

[George K]

@Doctor-Phibes said in By Performing Volunteer Work, Are You A Hero?:

@Horace said in By Performing Volunteer Work, Are You A Hero?:

@LuFins-Dad said in By Performing Volunteer Work, Are You A Hero?:

Most volunteer firemen I know were the ones setting the fires…

They are mostly living a dream, and hoping they can parlay it into the choicest public servant job in the country.

They’d managed to convince themselves that they had the most dangerous job in the world. Every meeting was preceded by a minutes silence for those who’d fallen in the line of duty.

Used to be that, per capita, lumber jobs were the most dangerous in the country. I'm too lazy to look it up to see if it's still true.

But yeah, the culture is interesting.

[Horace]

@Doctor-Phibes said in By Performing Volunteer Work, Are You A Hero?:

@Horace said in By Performing Volunteer Work, Are You A Hero?:

@LuFins-Dad said in By Performing Volunteer Work, Are You A Hero?:

Most volunteer firemen I know were the ones setting the fires…

They are mostly living a dream, and hoping they can parlay it into the choicest public servant job in the country.

I once attended a week of conferences held by fire chiefs. It was an interesting culture. They’d managed to convince themselves that they had the most dangerous job in the world. Every meeting was preceded by a minutes silence for those who’d fallen in the line of duty. Nobody ever does that for farm workers or fishermen. Trying to explain the intricacies of explosion risk to them was quite challenging.

It is way more dangerous to be a beat cop than a firefighter. If one wants evidence that the masses feel as narratives teach them to feel, look no further than our cultural attitudes towards the nobility of those two professions.

[Doctor Phibes]

@George-K firefighters aren’t even in the top 10. Delivery driving is more dangerous.

[George K]

@Doctor-Phibes said in By Performing Volunteer Work, Are You A Hero?:

@George-K firefighters aren’t even in the top 10. Delivery driving is more dangerous.

I am in no way disputing that. I'd just love to see where you got that information.

[Doctor Phibes]

@George-K said in By Performing Volunteer Work, Are You A Hero?:

@Doctor-Phibes said in By Performing Volunteer Work, Are You A Hero?:

@George-K firefighters aren’t even in the top 10. Delivery driving is more dangerous.

I am in no way disputing that. I'd just love to see where you got that information.

Google, I'm afraid...but I'm pretty sure it's true.

https://www.invictuslawpc.com/most-dangerous-jobs-osha/

According to this other list, firefighting supervisors are number 9, but it sounds as though it's mostly dangerous due to vehicle accidents:

https://www.ishn.com/articles/112748-top-25-most-dangerous-jobs-in-the-united-states

[LuFins Dad]

I have never understood the purpose of having these guys living at the station for 3-4 days and being on duty 24 hours a day, then 3-4 days off… Why not just have 3 8 hour shifts?

[Horace]

@LuFins-Dad said in By Performing Volunteer Work, Are You A Hero?:

I have never understood the purpose of having these guys living at the station for 3-4 days and being on duty 24 hours a day, then 3-4 days off… Why not just have 3 8 hour shifts?

I am sure the unions spin lofty tales about the purpose of this most awesome fringe benefit of that job. It allows full time fire fighters to take months at a time off, and/or maintain second jobs.

[MainerMikeBrown]

I've done a lot of volunteer work over the years.

However, I have never considered myself a hero because the volunteer jobs that I've done aren't anything that risks my safety.

I've never been a volunteer firefighter or anything like that.

[Horace]

In my company’s internal messaging, we employees are called heroes. We are also asked to find other heroes, and we get referral bonuses if we’re able to find any.

[George K]

@MainerMikeBrown said in By Performing Volunteer Work, Are You A Hero?:

I've done a lot of volunteer work over the years.

However, I have never considered myself a hero because the volunteer jobs that I've done aren't anything that risks my safety.

I've never been a volunteer firefighter or anything like that.

In your opinion, does encountering personal danger need to be a qualification for being a "hero?"

[Doctor Phibes]

I worked in some pretty dangerous places back in the UK. Most of the people there scored pretty low on the hero spectrum and pretty high on the moron spectrum. Present company excluded, of course. There was a totally inappropriate tendency towards playing practical jokes, particularly on smarty pants knobheads straight out of college.

[Copper]

Playing golf in retirement is probably top 10

Count the number of old men who died after playing years of golf

It is not a small number