What The Hell is Wrong With You?

Doing what we do, we often see things that make us shake our heads and wonder what is wrong with society. OD's (drug overdoses for the uninitiated), shootings, attempted suicides, assaults, rapes, child abuse...it only seems to get worse. How many times have we run on heroin addicts who have OD'ed and are essentially dead, only to wake up after a Narcan injection and get pissed at us for ruining their high? How many times have we gone on calls to revive children that parents claimed simply died in their cribs, only to find that the young, single sperm donor/incubator who created that life shook them to death in frustration? How many of us who have been doing this for awhile can recount calls we've been on that were so horrifying that you dare not even breathe word of it to your therapist for fear that the nightmare would become real?

In just a few short years, I've experienced all of the above. I get angry at teenage kids who live for the next episode of "Teen Mom" and "16 and Pregnant" because the show never tells the many sad stories out there of teen parents whose kids are neglected, abused, and sometimes killed because their parents were far too young to understand the gravity of bringing a child into this world and not giving them a chance by giving them up for adoption. They're not there at 0200 when we're doing CPR on a seven-month-old who is showing serious signs of prolonged abuse. They're not there at the hospital when a doctor pronounces the child dead and says he/she was shaken to death.

Teenage girls don't understand that what they wear can be dangerous. What parent in their right mind thinks it's okay for their 14-year-old daughter to wear skin-tight jeans with the word "Juicy" embroidered across their ass? What father is unaware of what every hot-blooded male within eyeshot is thinking when a girl walks by wearing that, a tube top, and enough makeup to make Elizabeth Taylor look conservative?

Teenage boys seem to think there are no consequences for their actions. Where are the fathers to teach them that having sex, protected or unprotected, stands a chance of causing a very serious problem that teenagers are ill-equipped to handle? Where is the respect for their mothers? Why are fewer and fewer every year losing interest in an education that could create a better life in the future? Why do gangs, violence, drugs and alcohol appeal to more of them as time goes on?

When I was a kid, my parents used to complain about how irritating kids were and how bad things were getting. I remember thinking they were complaining about nothing. Now, I find myself drawing the same conclusions and I see my parents in me more and more as time goes on. Every generation really does get worse. Of course, my view is tainted by the fact that I have seen the worst of the world, but I don't remember ever seeing the things going on in the news when I was a kid. Satanic panic was the worst thing happening, it seemed.

I'll never forget a shooting that I went on. It turned out that the victim had actually shot himself in a botched suicide attempt. The home was absolute squalor. The carpets hadn't been vacuumed and the hard floors not swept likely since the family had moved in a year prior. There was filth on the walls, grime on door handles, and gunk caked onto the countertops and tables. A 24-year-old woman was the mother of four children, the oldest eight, the youngest two years old. Her boyfriend had only fathered one of the children; he was a convicted felon and gang member covered head-to-toe in jail ink, not allowed to possess a firearm but he had one anyway. The 23-year-old mafioso had gotten drunk and, during a fight, he got his gun out and threatened to kill himself. Whether on purpose or under the influence of an entire fifth of tequila, he only badly wounded himself.

The home was so disgusting I was afraid to touch anything, lest I carry a hundred diseases out with me.

The kids probably hadn't bathed in days. All four of them reeked. They were streaked with dirt, their hands sticky, and they were convinced that we had toys to give them. Because the police had to interview the mother, they had to keep her separate from the kids for a while, but when they were led away from her the four-year-old boy demanded something to eat; she said he didn't need anything, that he needed to go with the officers. He actually slapped her across the face and said, "shut up, fatass!"

I had never heard that kind of language come out of the mouth of a four-year-old before. I was positively astounded. All four of the kids were unbelievably disrespectful to every adult in their midst. I was glad that I didn't have to stay, but could think of nothing else for days. I knew that those kids would never be taken out of the home. Some bleeding heart family judge with no understanding of the damage being done would insist on keeping that dangerously unhealthy family together. I knew those kids would end up just like their mother's boyfriend, in gangs, committing crimes, selling narcotics, drinking heavily, and squirting out more babies in the future to multiply all of the ills our society is slowly suffocating on.

The one depressing thing about my job is that I feel helpless to stop our downward momentum. I have to compartmentalize the things I'm seeing so that I won't take it home and keep it there. I have to remind myself when I see a child behave that way that it isn't my place to discipline them, and if the parent chooses not to, I don't have the right to say anything. How bad does it have to get before people begin to wake up to the reality that we have a serious problem? I'm required to report it when I witness conditions that are abusive or neglectful, but when I catch a parent in the act, I am not allowed to speak up. Otherwise they might complain to my captain or one of the chiefs that I was mean to them, or might even sue for "pain and suffering".

The truth is that we've created our own society, exactly as it is, either through our actions or inactions. By giving time and money to companies that push dangerous entertainment on kids or sitting back and saying nothing when we see injustice we have helped our society shape itself. We are exactly what's wrong with us.

The Things You Miss When You're Gone

When emergency surgery suddenly sidelined me a few months ago, I didn't want to stay at home for very long. I'm not the kind of person who convalesces well; I don't like to sit on my duff. Unfortunately it was more than just a local, so like it or not, sidelined I was for a few months.

Grrr.

So, now I'm back, and my first night in I spent hours laughing my ass off with the guys about some of the things I'd missed. My favorites:

-The engineer on the engine company at my station fell face-first out of the truck after coming back from a late call. Apparently he didn't wake up until sometime halfway through the drive home.

-A call involving a man who swore he saw green monkeys climbing through his windows, despite the guys all standing there telling him that his windows were tightly shut. Green monkeys are obviously worth calling 911 for.

-A drunk at a Denny's restaurant who had alcohol poisoning and wanted to show the staff all the pretty colors in his emesis. He found this quite amusing because he also wanted to show my friends once they arrived to take him to the hospital. I could have done without the play-by-play (besides, I've probably worn that particular drunk's innards before).

-An elderly couple called for an ambulance for the tenth time in a month - because they just received the bill for the last nine times they called. They had to call a police unit out to confirm that, no, ambulance rides are NOT free and we're not here to shuttle people to doctor's offices.

-The captain at my station performing his best impression of a homeless man who so loved the firefighters at our station that he stopped to serenade them as they did their gear check with a hearty rendition of "Sexual Healing" (which, oddly enough, sounded an awful lot like Bill Cosby's impression of a drunk person).

As for my first night back? Oh, if only I could give exact details...Bonnie and Clyde held a standoff with police, Clyde pretended to hold Bonnie hostage and fired through the door at everything that moved, the couple switched clothing, did an inordinate amount of methamphetamines, and in the end the purported VICTIM got shot in the face by a police sniper.

Damn, I missed my job!