Sick and Tired

I am a professional firefighter. In my 19 years on the job, I have been injured several times. The city has taken away our pension vesting because of a typo, and says we have to negotiate it back. At present, we have been without a contract since 1/1/09. And the city is trying to take away money, benefits and manning. I bust my ass working, both regular shifts and overtime, because the city won’t fill empty positions, all to support my wife and 2 children. We are not poor, but we are not rich, or even what most would consider well-off.

I risk my life everyday I go to work. In most other places, people appreciate the job I do.
But, not around here. Not in the Lehigh Valley. Here, I am just a low-life civil servant. A piece of shit, bottom feeder.

I am sick and tired :

Of people around here looking down their noses at me, because I’m a firefighter and I don’t make enough money for their tastes.

Of people taking us for granted. Of saying they’ll do something and then don’t. Of saying they’ll be somewhere and they’re not. Of putting everyone and everything ahead of us.

Of people always looking for a bigger, better deal. (ie; “sure, we’d love to come over!” then later, “oh, we didn’t come over because our other friends invited us over, and we knew we’d get drunk over there.”)

Of people who think it’s OK to get drunk, high, stoned, etc. while their children are around. (I was a deputy sheriff for awhile. People get their kids taken away for that shit. all it takes is one thing to go wrong.)

Of people looking down their noses at us because of where we live. We live in a small town where my parents were born and raised, and not in some fancy, ultra-ritzy development.

Of people who put on a big show of being Christian, all ‘holier than thou’. They go to church every Sunday and attend all the right events, and look down on us because we don‘t. BUT, in reality, they are some of the most hateful, horrible people in the world. They abuse their husband/wife/children, cheat on their spouses, and think nothing of it. They tease, bully, or mock others because of their job, income, race, religion, the clothes they wear, the car they drive, the house they live in. And even worse, they raise their children to be the same way.

Of people looking down their noses at my wife because I don’t make enough money.

Of people disrespecting my wife because even though she is smart and has successfully run her own business, she chose to stay home and raise our children.

Of people disrespecting my wife because we believe in raising our children and spending time with them instead of going out everyday and have $6 coffees with the “moms”.

Of people disrespecting my wife because she doesn’t down half a dozen Xanax (insert anti-depressant of your choice) and a pint of gin just to get through the day.

Of people disrespecting my wife because she cares about our children and will fight tooth and nail if she thinks someone has wronged them.

Of people disrespecting, teasing, or bullying my daughters because they are smart and have manners.

Of people disrespecting, teasing, or bullying my daughters because they don’t have the ‘right’ labels on their clothes.

Of people disrespecting, teasing, or bullying my daughters because we don’t buy them the latest, newest, coolest videogame on the market.

Of people disrespecting, teasing, or bullying my daughters because they would rather play outside instead of sitting inside being a lazy bums.

Of people complaining that I get paid too much for hardly ever having to work.

Of those same people running around with their NFL/NBA/MLB/NHL jerseys bragging about their season tickets. Most of the players are making more money in one year, than I’ll make in my entire career, playing a kids game! And they gleefully support them.
BUT GOD FORBID I MIGHT ACTUALLY GET A COST OF LIVING RAISE!!!!!!!!!!!


I AM SICK AND TIRED OF THE LEHIGH VALLEY AND THE STUCK-UP PEOPLE HERE!!!!!!!