okay we know you risked your lives but...

Sometimes you read about legislation that is stupid. Sometimes you read about legislation that is insulting and sometimes you read about legislation that is both combined. Yahoo News released an article http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20110422/us_yblog_thelookout/9-11-first-responders-to-be-checked-on-fbi-terror-list that states that, due to some whizbang wording added to a bill to recompense First Responders who suffer illnesses during their incredibly heroic actions during 9/11 passed, any First Responder who tries to get a part of the allocated funds must pass a background screening to make sure they or members of their family are terrorists.

Now there is already a lot of controversy over this bill because a lot of people felt that the First Responders who dealt with horrific events of 9/11 didn't deserve the extra compensation since they were just doing the jobs they were paid to do. I have opinions about that emotion, but will not go into it here since that isn't exactly the subject of the blog. I will just say this to those people. Thwwpppttt! (That's writerish for a very loud and rude raspberry)

Now I am not saying that some super sneaky member of a terrorist organization couldn't get a job as a fireman, EMT, National Guardsman using false credentials. Perhaps with some evil intent of carrying a bomb into the local Starbucks and ending the evils of Lattes forever. However, unless I completely misinterpret the idea behind terrorists, you don't usually stick around for hours afterward wading through collapsed buildings and breathing in toxic fumes while trying to rescue the Starbucks customers you just tried to blow up.

So using that logic, any First Responder who is now suffering the horrific effects of breathing in smoke, asbestos, chemical fumes etc while they risked their lives to save as many people as they could, then it kind of stands to reason that they aren't terrorists. This moronic and highly insulting rider to the legislation is just a way to keep people who desperately need the money now from getting it and you can bet some gifted soul in our government will do his/her/its damned best to find good men and women ineligible because they read the wrong book in preschool or sold unlicensed lemonade on the street corner when they were 12.

Work with me here on this one, guys. Make a fuss and raise a stink over this insulting piece of trash. The people already have enough to worry about without having to worry about being disallowed because they might be "terrorists." You got a blog? Talk about it. Got a Facebook page? Talk about it. Join the SIOTBAA Society! Make some noise!