Letter to the editor

There was a letter to the editor in the paper on Thursday that got me a little peeved! I apologize to those of you who do not have access to the paper. I would type out the letter here to share it with you, but I think it is crap, and I will not waste my time rewriting it.

I am sure you have all heard about the missing girls this past weekend. A friend and coworker of mine had posted earlier this week on her blog about this. Basically, she talked about how she heard the dispatcher did an awesome job and talking about how we do a thankless job. We, along with some other first responding agencies, often go unnoticed when it comes to helping people. We are not in this line of work because we want to be praised, we are in it because we want to help people. Often times, we have to deal with hysterical people, angry people cussing at us, death and drunks. We often have to sit hear and wonder what the outcome of a call is. It is by no means a glamorous job, but it is all worth it when you can help that one person.

This letter that was written to the editor, was written by a fellow first responder, who is on search and rescue. May be I have taken the letter the wrong way, and if I did, I apologize, but it seems like an attack on the 911 dispatchers and the way we handle calls. I say that because there are no other agencies mentioned in the letter. He is upset because search and rescue were not immediately paged out to help look for these girls. He goes on to say that it is not the first time that this has happened. He also would like you to believe that we are wasting the tax payers money, by not utilizing all of the equipment and training they have to offer. He also states some other "facts" that are not consistent with what actually transpired, but I am not able to go into that.

It is really a shame that some people would write a letter like that not knowing all of the factors that were involved in the situation. I don't even know all of the factors and I have way more access to finding out how things actually happened than he does. He has no idea what we do at our dispatch center, and I will not pretend to know everything that they do when the are out there on a call. We have been trained to do our jobs and follow certain procedures as are they. Depending on the circumstances, we do not always call the shots around here. We may not always agree, but that is the way it is. I refuse to point fingers, especially when it is at another first responding agency. We ultimately have the same goal, and that is to save lives.

I am not sure why he felt it necessary to try and open a can of worms, but I guess that is what he has done. I don't know about you, but as a member of this community, and as a dispatcher, I would like to believe that all of the agencies that may be involved in saving my life or yours, have respect for one another, and that they know what they are doing. If you or I need our lives, or the lives of our loved ones save, I certainly wouldn't want people arguing about who, what, why, when and how.

Well, thanks for letting me vent. I needed to get that off of my chest. It just touched base with a few of my personal pet peeves. And please, if you read the letter to the editor, don't let it scare you into thinking you may not receive the help you need. We do know what we are doing!

Everyone have a SUPER GREAT weekend!!!