In your reaction to the fire story, was there any level of schadenfreude?

[rucky]

Even for a second?

Let's be honest. Most of us are compassionate people here, but the internet and the media can dehumanize things and desensitize people who read about things that aren't happening to them or their neighbors. I see the "let it burn" vs. the "how could they?" camps fall more along a spectrum, depending on a few things: Our level of sensitivity to things we read about, our level of disdain for people who want to receive public services but don't want to pay for them, and the level of thoughtfulness and sincerity that goes into what we post here.

So thinking back at your first reaction to this story, was there a certain level of schadenfreude - even for a passing moment - that you felt?

I don't expect honest responses, so I went for a poll:

[seabeyond]

1. it never has been let it burn for me. there is a continued characterization of let it burn

an i continually say, that is not my issue. the let it burn is past. i am into the now of the issue. a libertarian community gutting a tax base, provide for all.

one can hardly say that is about "let it burn"

there is an honest reply

[left is right]

6. Well said

[catbyte]

2. The animals were the big game-changer for me.

[rucky]

4. Agreed.

I found that out a bit later, so...

[seabeyond]

5. the unbelievable and unquestioned story of the animals pissed me off.

i dont know how du can unquestionly believe that all the time it took the fire to get to the house, the owner could not get his animals out of the house and allowed them to die.

seeing it over and over on du really bothers me, ... in its dishonesty

[jobycom]

7. Which way? The fire took two hours to reach the house, and the owner left the animals in the house

for the entire time.

[rucky]

18. because lives were lost.

it emotionally pulls you far far away from the "let it burn" position.

[MadHound]

3. As a former volunteer firefighter, no schadenfreude

In fact I think that those "firefighters" and "fire department" that they worked for should be cleaned out top to bottom. They rejected the firefighter's number one command, to run towards the fire when others are running away. They refused to do their job over something as petty as money. They essentially are using their "fire department" as an extortion racket to wring money from the citizens they are supposed to protect and serve.

[emilyg]

8. Thank you.

[sinkingfeeling]

10. So all firemen are supposed to protect and serve the citizens of all jurisdictions? Is there

any limits? Must a fire department respond to a fire in another city, 30 miles away, without a call for assistance? And if my fire department, six blocks away, is in another town when my house catches on fire, who is to put my fire out?

[MadHound]

15. Nice, fat strawman you set up there,

No, firemen don't respond to any fire, anywhere, unless they are asked to respond. However if there is a call, then you respond because the simple fact of the matter is that if somebody is calling from thirty, or three hundred miles away, then they need help badly. There was a fire at a commercial gas operation in St. Louis a couple of years back. They put out a call across the state for help, and units from three hundred miles away rushed to the scene.

Oh, and you don't have to worry, if you have a fire while your fire department six blocks away is occupied with an inferno miles away, you will also be protected. No fire department ever vacates its district and leaves it unprotected to go help elsewhere.

[sinkingfeeling]

16. I don't understand your anger at the fire department. Why aren't you upset that the county provides

no fire services for the 32,000 people outside of the city limits?

[MadHound]

17. Because it is the primary duty of any fire department to put out a fire

It doesn't matter what the monetary situation is, it doesn't matter who the people are, when you are called, you come, you put out the fire.

The rest is simply politics, and should be dealt with as all politics is. But when it comes to those who wield the hose and the ax, it is incumbent upon them to put out the fire. Otherwise they are a disgrace to their uniform and their profession.

[subterranean]

9. I think the city should have handled it differently.

I can understand their position of not wanting to provide service for freeloaders outside their boundaries any longer. But they could have announced that due to insufficient funds, they would no longer provide fire-fighting services outside city limits beginning next year, or the year after. That would give the county and/or its residents time to come up with alternate arrangements. Fire fighters should not have been put in the position of responding to a house fire only to stand by and watch it burn.

[Burma Jones]

11. Half of my family is from Obion County and I spent a lot of vacation time there in my youth

I felt absolutely no schadenfreude but not exactly empathy either. I've spent almost all of my life between New York and the DC area. When I think back on my time there, when I consider Aunts, Uncles and Cousins from there, I am reminded of the Cultural Chasm between how and where I was raised and live my life and how that part of my family lives. I have no trouble believing the homeowner when he says he forgot to send in his $75.00 this year but that he had in the past. I do have some empathy when I think about the fire being started by the guy's Grandson burning trash too close to the house....

[slackmaster]

12. None whatsoever - Just empathy, sadness, and a little anger

:argh:

[mitchum]

13. I would have experienced schadenfreude only if it had been an Objectivist Center

That would have been sweet!

[Ozymanithrax]

14. I saw it as just wrong that they would set up such a system and let his house burn...

I felt empathy for him after he appeared on Olberman.

My first feeling was that this is just another dumb shit plan by cheap Conservative Capitalism fanatic fantasists that want to avoid the stigma of charging a three dollar tax on everyone. How stupid and wasteful can people be to save three bucks a year at the cost of a families home. (Actually, this wasn't the first home according to the stories.)

Schadenfreude had nothing to do with it.