Today is the 4th of July and politicians make speeches, kids enjoy firetrucks and fireworks, and folks enjoy picnics and beer.
That being said, I’m troubled. My company put one truck in the parade, and we’d once been able to easily empty the station. According to one PA report, we’re losing 8,000 volunteers every year; 300K in 1976, 152K in 1985 and 72K in 2005, when the report was published.
It’s not just the fire service. Business friends decry lack of interest/new membership in other service groups, such as Lions, Kiwanis, and Rotary.
So why did Joe and Jane Average Citizen stop giving a shit about their fellow citizen/community?
It could be that people have gotten cynical from getting pleas for help from a dozen different new charities every week. Heaven knows that’s happened to me.
I’d say it’s two-income households. With both spouses working, it’s hard to give a shit about community service when you are pressed for time just keeping up with day-to-day commitments.
It’s civic pride and the fact that some people just don’t care feeds back into itself. The cult of individuality also has something about it as well.
I’d say they’re the two big offenders. The entire idea of “ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country” is gone, because people think their country would flip them over and fuck their brains out if it wanted to. The government should be afraid of the people, not the other way around.
I think it’s both individualism and the second job. Life seems to be lived at a frantic pace these days–and I make a point of NOT taking on too much. (but then, I have two PT jobs; I’m in grad school and I have 3 kids).
I know I burnt out on the whole voluneerism thing when I realized that it didn’t matter what I had contributed (this was via my chuch)–the message was always, “what have you done[for the church] lately?” I realized that was a mug’s game, and that I could give to charities that I wanted to without the church as middle man.
Plus, frankly, as a nurse, I’ve always felt I work in the service/charity sector anyhow. I give to people all day long, be it encouragement, advice, education, information, resources etc. I’m done when I get home.
Some of us have never really cared about parades of any kind.
Do you have some numbers on volunteersim overall, or just in your cause\activity?Could it be that because there are more and more groups, the pool is being stretched a little thin?
I’d say that work demands have eaten up a lot of spare time. Mouse_Spouse and I both have job where working “just” 40 hours a week makes you look bad.
Also, to advance in many careers, employees have to increase their education and/or training. Add on family obligations, and basic household maintenance, there is very little time left for the community.
It’s kind of a drag to see your organization getting weaker and weaker, or simply hovering on the cusp of the “critical mass” number of volunteers.
I volunteer at a suicide/crisis hotline in New Jersey. We have proudly had 24/7 service for decades, until this year.
For many reasons, we are not bringing in enough new volunteers to replace the older ones as they leave. It’s not lack of enthusiasm on the part of the current folks — in this line of work, people tend to volunteer for >20 years. But we just aren’t keeping up with natural attrition. Meanwhile the call volume has increased, indicating that we are still needed by the community.
In the first half of this year, we had to let many shifts go unmanned, with the phones directed to an answering machine that simply gave some emergency numbers.
We finally partnered with another organization in a different state to forward our calls during shifts we are unable to fill. This is an imperfect solution, as people really like to talk to local volunteers.
It’s not just our organization. We have watched over the years as similar hotlines across the state have closed up shop. It’s disappointing to try and provide a local hotline number to someone calling from the other end of the state, only to find out that the number is no longer in service.
Society’s role models have become self-absorbed assholes, to the point where people feel that anything they do for “free” is just someone taking advantage of them.
“Looking out for Number One” has become the norm for sports heroes, political leaders, and media stars. Well, actually it’s always been, but that hasn’t been so naked and obvious until recent years.
With respect to organizations like Lions, Kiwanis, and Rotary, it’s a generational thing. I’m not sure even any of my parents’ friends were members of any of those orgs. I’m surprised they’re still around.
Would you be happy if the local volunteer fire company almost responded? If their first due truck doesn’t hit the street in < 4 minutes from the time you call 911, and you’re depending on next due mututal aid, I hope you and your family are out of the dwelling.
What if the Shriners almost took care of crippled children?
You know, there are some things, IMO., that should be the responsibility of government and not left to volunteers. Firefighting is one of them, particularly in this day and age of hazardous chemicals. If a community can’t afford professional firefighters, it shouldn’t exist as an independent political entity.
That’s not realistic for a vast number of communities in the U.S. who have neither the need nor the money for a group of men sitting around prepared for anything and everything all the time when it may only happen every now and then. Even my somewhat affluent town in the Greater Boston area only has a professional fire chief and the rest are volunteer (they have relentlessly bugged the shit out of me on my own property since I started clearing 6 years ago but that is another story). Firefighting is actually ideal for volunteers because so many men really love the firetrucks, the other equipment, and the scanners catching a developing blaze in the middle of the night. I don’t really consider them heroes because I have known many and I know exactly why they do it which is literally playing with fire. The instinct is still very helpful though.
I was doing some volunteer work for a political cause, but I had to stop in December to get a second job. Now I have to look for a second job again tomorrow.
That said, I still write letters to my Congressmen and Senators about issues that concern me. I try to stay up to date on news and politics.
What’s wrong with individuality? The smallest minority is the individual. If something concerns me and mine, I get involved.
What’s wrong with individuality? The smallest minority is the individual. If something concerns me and mine, I get involved.