Whence the patriotic firefighter fetish?

[BobLibDem]

@tomndebb

At any rate, that topic is really not part of the OP’s question. If anyone wishes to continue that discussion, it would be better served in its own new thread.

Sorry, Tom. I’ll try to stay on topic in the future.

[RTFirefly]

@tomndebb

The issue of photographing coffins…is really not part of the OP’s question. If anyone wishes to continue that discussion, it would be better served in its own new thread.

Its own new thread.

[ElvisL1ves]

Firefighters are practically immune from criticism. The job they do is inarguably necessary, it does take great personal risk, their efforts really can’t be corrupted or perverted, the cause they serve is not susceptible to debate. A firefighter who dies on the job was unquestionably doing something anyone can applaud and admire without hesitation or thought required, and there is no way anyone can use that death as a symbol of some other cause that leads to unpleasant disagreements.

We need heroes, and firefighters are about the only folks we can all treat as such with complete confidence.

[Loach]

@Hampshire

I think once you open it up to firefighters and police officers you need to open it up to a whole lot of other professions also.
How about a Volusia County lifeguard who dies in the line of duty rescuing a drowning victim? How about a county hospital ER nurse who gets scratched by a doped up gang member with a knife wound and she contracts AIDS and dies?
How about a parole officer who gets killed by one of their angry/insane convicts when visiting them in the ghetto? How about a national park search and rescue worker who dies trying to pluck someone off a mountain side?

All these people serve the public. All of them have dangerous jobs. Don’t they desrve the same recognition?

One big difference is that police and fire are both paramilitary in nature. They have similar rank structures. They salute during ceremonies. They sometimes march (poorly) in uniform. At least in the academy all of them are treated to military type discipline. They borrow a lot of their ceremonial traditions from the military. Your local lifeguard does not.

[HMS_Irruncible]

@ElvisL1ves

A firefighter who dies on the job was unquestionably doing something anyone can applaud and admire without hesitation or thought required, and there is no way anyone can use that death as a symbol of some other cause that leads to unpleasant disagreements.

What about this one?

[Billdo]

For the New York Police Department, the coffins of officer’s killed in the line of duty are covered with the green, white and blue NYPD Flag for their funerals, unless the officer has served in the US military, in which case their coffins are covered by the US Flag.

[Loach]

@Billdo

For the New York Police Department, the coffins of officer’s killed in the line of duty are covered with the green, white and blue NYPD Flag for their funerals, unless the officer has served in the US military, in which case their coffins are covered by the US Flag.

Good call. I should have remembered that.

[lekatt]

@Brain Wreck

I’ve been seeing online news articles like this one about the Charleston firefighter tragedy. It strikes me as a bit “off” that the caskets of these firefighters, public servants presumably on the payroll of a South Carolina municipality, protecting South Carolina citizens and property, were draped with US flags. I thought this was mainly a practice for federal politicians and soldiers. Why not South Carolina flags for South Carolina firefighters, I wonder? Has it always been this way?

Of course we all know that beginning from the morning of 9/12/2001, firefighters and policemen from sea to shining sea were treated to the greatest patriotic fellating seen in America since the moon landings, and it shows no sign of abating. So what I’m specifically wondering is whether this firefighter-cum-soldier thing is a recent invention of the 9/11 bandwagon, or whether it’s just my imagination.

In my personal feeling, it seems like the federal government is capitalizing on the valor of state and municipal servants to build a “Brand America” whose halo effect functions as a “moral-laundering” service for the use of federal force and a justification for the expansion of federal authority. Of course this is already occurring with overseas force… if you criticize the war on Iraq, you’re shitting on the graves of New York firefighters… but I can’t help feeling like it’s also paving the way for greater government monopoly on domestic force and authority.

I am 70 years old, and have seen a lot of police, fireman, and military funerals. They always have the flag draped on the casket if the family wants it. There is no fetish, only people paying their respects to those who give their lives for the benefit of others. Sorry you don’t get it. Perhaps some day when you get older the understanding will come.