I [heart] Firemen

A Denver firefighter died on Sunday following a week in the ICU after rescuing a sixteen-year-old girl from a house fire. Colfax Avenue - Denver's main street, for those unfamiliar with the Queen City of the Plains - was closed for a big stretch this morning and into the afternoon for his funeral procession. There were dozens upon dozens of fire engines from all over the state parked along the street, and huge crowds flooding into the Cathedral. It was reminiscent of the funeral for a police officer who was killed in the line of duty last year.

Cops get lots of press and airtime. There's dozens of cop shows on TV. I don't have a problem with police in general. But I do think there's far too many people who join the police force because they want to carry a gun and wear a badge to back up the fact that they're bullies who want to act like hard-ons and push people around. Not all of them, probably not even most of them. But a significant number of them.

Firefighters, on the other hand, don't carry guns and, unless they're in dress uniform, don't generally wear a badge. They don't get to push people around. A firefighter is, ultimately, just a badass who works lousy hours and takes insultingly shitty pay to do a job where sometimes he charges into a burning building in order to save people's lives.

Yeah, it's kinda corny. But Raquel Guttierez is alive today because Richard Montoya is dead.