Now, they say that this cut in funding will not effect the citizenry, but who are they trying to kid? The point of it,as I understand it, comes down to this. They may have to cut eight firefighters positions. The sticking point is, this means, to them, that they may be forced to close one of the ten or eleven fire stations...But WHY? It doesn't take a genius to figure out that instead of cutting all the positions from the same station, they could spread the cuts out amongst all the stations, and therefore, keep all the stations open. Now, doesn't that make more sense? Each station would lose only one fireman, therefore the public safety would not be threatened, by closing a fire station in one area, and leaving that part of the city without a rapid response firehouse.Then those firemen who have to be let go could still find positions in another community in the Quad Cities,and still be on standby as a volunteer firefighter for their own previous home station, should there be a big emergency.
This solution came to me the other night as I was watching the news,and I thought of a story I heard in my home town many years ago. It seems a man was driving by the state hospital one evening, when all of a sudden, he lost a wheel.Naturally, there was no choice but to stop, and he recovered the wheel,which had no damage, however, he couldn't find the lug nuts used to hold the wheel on the car.They obviously had worked loose,and fallen off, causing the problem.He jacked the car up, and fitted the wheel back on, but couldn't figure out how to hold it on the car long enough to get back into town. All of this was being observed by the residents of the state hospital, who sat on chairs on the porch. Finally an older man came to the railing of the porch and said, " I see you have a problem. Have you no lug nuts?"
" That's right" The man said, exasperated," I don't suppose you have a phone I can use to call anyone for help?"
The oldster shook his head." No" said he," But I have an idea how you can fix it enough to get back to town."
" I am open to suggestions!" The man said.
"You need four, but you can make it back with three.Take one lug nut off of each of the other tires, and then with three on each wheel, you can drive safely back to town with no problem."
The man was taken aback with the sheer brilliance of the plan. He knew it would work! " Hey! " He said, " I thought you guys were all crazy out here!"
The oldster snickered good naturedly." We may be crazy fella, but we're not stupid!"
There you go. Sometimes the answer to the problem is so simple, you overlook it altogether, and it takes a wild eye to see it!
OUI?
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