This Guy Has Major Issues!

[nitestokker]

Please check out Jim Spencer's editorial on DenverPost.com referring to the funeral of a fallen firefighter. I am computer stupid, so someone please help me post it if you can. This guy's main problem is that police and firefighter funerals are "overblown" and streets were closed and businesses lost money and "normal" people couldn't get to work on Friday. I'm just so pissed I can't talk about it! Check it out and see what you think. Am I wrong for being mad?

[FishTail]

Can't find the article. If you copy and paste the web address I'll slot it into your post.

[Andrewtx]

Here ya go..


http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_3865818

Hero's salute transcends the trivial

By Jim Spencer
Denver Post Staff Columnist
DenverPost.com

Find something new. Those were the orders a friend was given as he was sent off to cover Denver fire Lt. Rich Montoya's funeral Thursday.

I don't think the assignment was purposely cynical. I think someone wanted freshness in a story that's been - sorry for the insensitivity - covered to death.

Sadly, the facts of Montoya's demise remain what has already been widely reported. He had a heart attack May 14 leading a team battling a home fire. He was 61 and 15 shifts short of retirement.

What we should ask ourselves is this: Why is that story not good enough in its 100th telling? Ditto for the been-there, done-that, over-the-top feel of Denver's police and fire burials.

Montoya's funeral was very much like last year's funeral of murdered police Detective Donnie Young. People had to take alternate routes to work, because streets around the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception were blocked. After the funeral, a giant procession of fire engines, ambulances, police cars and motorcycles crawled through downtown to the cemetery. Local businesses lost money. People couldn't cross streets.

It was nothing new.

Something sort of novel did happen when I looked at the same old morning sun striking the same old American flag, Colorado flag and Denver flag. The symbols, hauled out for most occasions, hung between the extended ladders of firetrucks on Colfax Avenue. They seemed to glow.

Not exactly Saul on the road to Damascus. Still, I took it as a sign. Things don't have to be new to have meaning.

At the corner of Logan Street and East Colfax Avenue, hundreds of firefighters in dress blue uniforms and boxy hats mingled, waiting to come to attention and salute when Montoya's flag-draped casket arrived on the back of an antique firetruck.

In the shade of the basilica, an honor guard of firefighters from different jurisdictions formed. Some carried chrome- headed axes, some pike poles.

As Montoya's body got close, everyone assembled on the street, just as they always do at police and fire funerals.

"Looking good, people, looking very good," a commander encouraged. "Don't lock your knees. We don't want anyone to go down. Sunglasses off. Hats on."

Colorado Gov. Bill Owens and Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper wore neither hats nor sunglasses. But they kept low profiles, so as not to distract attention from the deceased.

It was all standard operating procedure for honoring dead cops and firefighters.

Inside the basilica, the archbishop of Denver, Charles Chaput, received Montoya's earthly remains, said a Mass for his heavenly soul and celebrated communion with his survivors.

Chaput praised Montoya for embodying two fundamental values of his church - protecting the dignity of individuals and making a commitment to the common good. Those rules have been around for centuries. But Chaput may have hit on something a little bit different when he pointed out how few folks can live by them.

"Most of us say that (we'll protect and commit) until the moment comes," the archbishop explained. "When the moment came for Rich, he gave his life."

While not unique, this was at least an interesting choice. "He didn't have to go into a fire 15 days before he retired," Montoya's son, Eric Carrasco, told a packed sanctuary.

He also didn't have to stop swearing around his son. Carrasco said Montoya did so after hearing Carrasco curse at Carrasco's 12th birthday party.

"He refused to cuss in front of me from that day on."

Whenever Montoya got mad, he said, "son of a beer."

Finally, something new.

New, but insignificant compared with three decades of anonymous public toil. New, but meaningless compared with dying while trying to save lives. No matter how often you explain them, hard work and sacrifice are the things that earn fallen firefighters and police officers what the Rev. Stephen Siebert said they deserve:

"A hero's salute and a procession to end all processions."

[nitestokker]

Think I figured it out, LongTail. Trial and error. See what you think. This guy is a well known cop-hater. Just ask our brothers and sisters in Colorado.



http://denverpost.com/spencer/ci_3865818

[nitestokker]

Damn You, Andy! I was so proud of myself.....................

[Andrewtx]

I think that his main point is criticism of the idea that a news reporter should have to find something new about the funeral in order to make it newsworthy, as if the fact that the firefighter died while putting his life on the line isn't enough of a story in itself. I don't think he intended to be disrespectful, though a couple small parts of the column did come across that way.

[Ducky]

I vote next time we toss HIS ass on the fire to put it out.

[Andrewtx]

Damn You, Andy! I was so proud of myself.....................

lol, I'm sorry!


Maybe I'm interpreting the article incorrectly, but I didn't pick up the same disrespectful tone. The confusing part is this, which makes it sound as though he's whining about the incovenience of it all:

"After the funeral, a giant procession of fire engines, ambulances, police cars and motorcycles crawled through downtown to the cemetery. Local businesses lost money. People couldn't cross streets."


Why he would include those last two lines I don't know; they don't seem to fit with the tone of the rest of the article. But maybe I'm just giving him too much credit.

His ending words seem to me to be very respectful, and he makes a point of how little recognition firefighters and cops receive until the tragedy of their death in the line of duty..

"New, but insignificant compared with three decades of anonymous public toil. New, but meaningless compared with dying while trying to save lives. No matter how often you explain them, hard work and sacrifice are the things that earn fallen firefighters and police officers what the Rev. Stephen Siebert said they deserve.."

[nitestokker]

I haven't seen it, but I was told that he he recently did an editorial about him getting a speeding ticket. Like I said, he is a well known cop-hater and I think he was showing his true colors at the beginning of this article, then tried to sugar coat it toward the end.

[Retdetsgt]

I guess you'd have to know him to be all that pissed. I didn't think that particular article was all that bad. He said some nice things, I thought.

[FishTail]

I'm with RDS. I'd have to see his past form to pick up on any innuendo.

[Piggybank Cop]

I haven't seen it, but I was told that he he recently did an editorial about him getting a speeding ticket. Like I said, he is a well known cop-hater and I think he was showing his true colors at the beginning of this article, then tried to sugar coat it toward the end.

Hello; everybody hates cops and loves fire guys.
That's just the way the world is.

[nitestokker]

Just check out the archive show from last night at The Steve Douglas Show at AM850KOA Radio. I couldn't get the link to upload. It might make sense then. Maybe I'm just too tired and sunburnt to convey what this guy's about. You can listen to the whole radio show from last night on there and judge for yourself.

[Retdetsgt]

Hello; everybody hates cops and loves fire guys.
That's just the way the world is.

Actually, here cops killed in the line of duty receive the same respect and treatment as firemen. Day to day though, you're right.

[Sheriff]

Speaking of death and firemen, I don't even think we have any
female firemen in my city. The fire chief who recently retired didn't
think they were capable of doing the job was my impression, and
didn't want to see them injured or hurt.
.

[Retdetsgt]

Speaking of firemen, I don't even think we have any female
firemen in my city. The fire chief who recently retired didn't
think they were capable of doing the job was my impression.
.

We have a few. Not many can pass the physical agility test. Unlike the police, the fire dept could give good reasons why not to dilute it down so they could pass. No matter what your size or gender, you still damn sure better be able to run that fire hose up a flight of stairs.

[Sheriff]

We have a few. Not many can pass the physical agility test. Unlike the police, the fire dept could give good reasons why not to dilute it down so they could pass. No matter what your size or gender, you still damn sure better be able to run that fire hose up a flight of stairs.

Maybe that's the way our local chief felt. Makes sense.
Lowering physical requirements puts people in harm's way
for sure.
.

[Piggybank Cop]

Actually, here cops killed in the line of duty receive the same respect and treatment as firemen. Day to day though, you're right.

Just like GI's the dead ones get the best treatment;the live ones well.....

[cntryboy0531]

I can't tell whether he is bashing or what. Like others, I'd have to hear his past history.

If he's using the editorial to bash the funerals.. I wish him many a traffic citations and a Habitual Traffic Offender felony conviction in his future.

[stwkmoore]

Well its kinda like that old saying your dirtbags dont like cops till they need them and once the need is gone, its screw em who needs them. We could all get mad about this guys outlook but, it's just life. He will love the Fire guys and or the Law Enforcement when he needs them.... but only when he needs them. we could all send him a bunch of negative email but that would show his boss how well read his paper is. His job is to get a response and increase circulation.