George,

One might admire Robert (Robbie) Bragg's skill as a spin doctor. His prose comes direct from the proposed city budget. In the battle between the pro and the volunteer, he's the pro.

He calls pressuring the Charlottesville-Albemarle Rescue Squad to begin charging victims for the rescue service that's now free "revenue recovery." It's OK to begin charging accident and heart attack victims $400 for an ambulance call, he says, because other cities do it.

Does that make it OK? Is it OK that our health insurers will have to raise rates here in self defense?

He spins the issue of creating a tax-funded ambulance service into "another ambulance in the transport system," and ignores the bristling competition sure to undermine the services. Indeed, the lengthy list of shortcomings he sees in CARS is the very outline of that competition, from the pro's standpoint.

The pros versus the volunteers is a long and honorable saga in fire fighting. In 1954, an obscure Broadway musical, "The Girl in Pink Tights," actually had two songs pitting fire fighting pros against volunteers. "Out of the Way," and "Roll Out the Hose, Boys" were sung simultaneously as they competed to respond to a fire.

Around that year my grandfather was honored for 50 years as a volunteer fireman in Mt. Vernon, NY. He wouldn't be at all surprised to learn the competition between volunteer and pro is far from over.

Rey Barry (Electronic mail, April 8, 2007)