"I Wish You Could Know"

  I wish you could know what it is like to search a burning bedroom
for trapped children at 3 AM, flames rolling above your head, your palms and
knees burning as you crawl, the floor sagging under your weight as the kitchen
below you burns.

      I wish you could comprehend a wife's horror at 6 in the morning as I check her husband of 40 years for a pulse and find none. I start CPR anyway, hoping to bring him back, knowing intuitively it is too late. But wanting his wife and family to know everything possible was done to try to save his life.

      I wish you knew the unique smell of burning insulation, the taste of
soot-filled mucus, the feeling of intense heat through your turnout gear,
the sound of flames crackling, the eeriness of being able to see absolutely
nothing in dense smoke-sensations that I've become too familiar with.

     I wish you could read my mind as I respond to a building fire "Is
this false alarm or a working fire? How is the building constructed? What
hazards await me? Is anyone trapped?" Or to call, "What is wrong with the patient?
Is it minor or life-threatening? Is the caller really in distress or is he
waiting for us with a 2x4 or a gun?"

     I wish you could be in the emergency room as a doctor pronounces dead
the beautiful five-year old girl that I have been trying to save during the
past 25 minutes. Who will never go on her first date or say the words, "I love
you Mommy" again.

 

     I wish you could know the frustration I feel in the cab of the
engine, squad, or my personal vehicle, the driver with his foot pressing down hard
on the pedal, my arm tugging again and again at the air horn chain, as you
fail to yield the right-of-way at an intersection or in traffic. When you need us
however, your first comment upon our arrival will be, "It took you forever
to get here!"

      I wish you could know my thoughts as I help extricate a girl of
teenage years from the remains of her automobile. "What if this was my daughter,
sister, my girlfriend or a friend? What were her parents reaction going to
be when they opened the door to find a police officer with hat in hand?"

     I wish you could know how it feels to walk in the back door and greet
my parents and family, not having the heart to tell them that I nearly did
not come back from the last call.

     I wish you could know how it feels dispatching officers, firefighters
and EMT's out and when we call for them and our heart drops because no one
answers back or to hear a bone chilling 911 call of a child or wife
needing assistance.

 

    i wish you could feel the hurt as people verbally, and sometimes
physically, abuse us or belittle what I do, or as they express their
attitudes of "It will never happen to me.

      I wish you could realize the physical, emotional and mental drain or
missed meals, lost sleep and forgone social activities, in addition to all
the tragedy my eyes have seen.

     I wish you could know the brotherhood and self-satisfaction of
helping save a life or preserving someone's property, or being able to be there in
time of crisis, or creating order from total chaos.

     I wish you could understand what it feels like to have a little boy
tugging at your arm and asking, "Is Mommy okay?" Not even being able to
look in his eyes without tears from your own and not knowing what to say.  Or to have
to hold back a long time friend who watches his buddy having CPR done on him
as they take him away in the Medic Unit. You know all along he did not have
his seat belt on. A sensation that I have become too familiar with.

     Unless you have lived with this kind of life, you will never truly
understand or appreciate who I am, we are, or what our job really means to
us...I wish you could though.

KEEP SENDING THIS ON. APPRECIATE AND SUPPORT THE LOCAL
EMS WORKERS, 911 DISPATCHERS, FIREFIGHTERS, and LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS IN YOUR AREA. ONE DAY THEY'LL PROBABLY BE SAVING YOUR PROPERTY OR YOUR OWN LIFE.
WHEN YOU SEE THEM COMING WITH LIGHTS FLASHING, MOVE OUT OF THE WAY QUICKLY, THEN PRAY FOR THEM

 

TO THE FAMILIES OF THOSE THAT ARE AT WAR........WE PRAY FOR YOUR LOVED ONES TO BE SAFE AND COME HOME SOON.

I see a lot of people yelling for peace but i have not heard of one plan for peace. "Books, not Bombs" won't work. The head mullahs won't let anyone read them. If they do, they poke their eyes out.

Here's the plan:

1) The US will apologize to the world for our "interference" in their affairs, past & present. You know, Hitler, Mussolini and the rest of them 'good old boys'. We will never "interfere" again.

2) We will withdraw our troops from all over the world, starting with Germany, South Korea and the Philippines. They don't want us there. We would station troops at our borders. No more sneaking through holes in the fence.

3) All illegal aliens have 90 days to get their affairs together and leave. We'll give them a free trip home. After 90 days the remainder will be gathered up and deported immediately, regardless of who or where they are. France would welcome them.We already have 50,000 Americans there already, rolling over in their graves!

4) All future visitors will be thoroughly checked and limited to 90 days unless given a special permit. No one from a terrorist nation would be allowed in. If you don't like it there, change it yourself, don't hide here. Asylum would not ever be available to anyone. We don't need any more cab drivers.

5) No "students" over age 21. The older ones are the bombers. If they don't attend classes, they get a "D" and it's back home baby.

6) The US will make a strong effort to become self sufficient energy wise. This will include developing non polluting sources of energy but will require a temporary drilling of oil in the Alaskan wilderness. The caribou will have to cope for a while.

7) Offer Saudi Arabia and other oil producing countries $10 a barrel for their oil. If they don't like it, we go someplace else.

8) If there is a famine or other natural catastrophe in the world, we will not "interfere." They can pray to Allah or whomever, for seeds, rain, cement or whatever they need. Besides, most of what we give them is stolen or given to the army. The people who need it most get very little, if any, anyway.

9) Ship the UN Headquarters to an island some place. We don't need the spies and fair weather friends here. Besides, it would make a good homeless shelter or lockup for illegal aliens.

10) All Americans must go to charm and beauty school. That way, no one can call us "Ugly Americans" any longer.

Now, ain't that a winner of a plan?
unknown author