Talk-Polywell.org

I went home mid-day yesterday because I needed to build a Helmholtz coil for work and they would rather I not spread sawdust around the lab.

About half an hour after I started work on it, the sirens started. Pretty soon I had to know why because it sounded like every fire truck in the city was responding, and it was close. I was not far wrong. It was apparently every fire truck in the city, most from the surrounding county, and several from an adjacent county. Their destination was three blocks from my front door.

Three homes were totally destroyed, two of those burned to their foundations, plus another four or so damaged but probably repairable. The homes are so close together that one burning freely can set its neighbors on fire. The first trucks responded in 4 minutes, but that was long enough that the first fire had heavily involved the two adjacent houses. Without the fire department it is obvious the fire would have spread up the hill, and maybe down, indefinitely, probably cooking off homes across the street as well (their siding was smoking and drooping).

There appear to have been a couple of minor injuries to humans. Several dogs and cats died. No idea of the cause, but we're all really sure of why it went out, and we love our firemen today.

Yup, there are some agencies of government which we like, those which protect the mentioned life, liberty, and property.

In many places, that service is either done on a volunteer basis or is paid for via insurance premiums. Said service is not necessarily a "government service".

My younger brother has been a volunteer fireman for 25 years. He is certainly a civil servant. He doesn't draw a salary, but he uses municipal equipment, hangs in a municipal facility drinking municipal beer. The only paid fireman for that town and many others in suburbia are the DPW workers who get paid their standard wage if they leave work to attend a fire function of any sort, including planned meetings.

All in all, pretty good arrangement for everyone.

GIThruster wrote:My younger brother has been a volunteer fireman for 25 years. He is certainly a civil servant.

This seems a contradiction. What am I missing?

I see no contradiction. For most of human history there have been unpaid servants. Sometimes they call them slaves, sometimes wives, occasionally volunteers.

Someone who volunteers to serve has the best spirit of public service. People who do it for pay may be perfectly professional and great public servants, but it takes a special dedication to your community to do it for free.