Thumbs up to those volunteers who recently signed on to be Pemberton firefighters when the town of 229 people was ready to close down the local service.
City Clerk Kathy Grinnell put out a call for volunteers through email and social media to help bolster the fire department that was down to five. That wasn’t going to be enough to sustain the service and may have led to discontinuation, relying on other agencies farther away that would have increased response times.
Many of the department’s 30 calls per year end up being medical calls for people who need life-saving services.
Within one week of word getting out, Pemberton had almost filled the need for 10-12 additional firefighters. The agency got four solid applicants and another four who work for neighboring Waldorf planned to join the team.
Rural fire departments around the region all face the need to recruit more firefighters as others retire. Chiefs report applications are down and people don’t have as much spare time as they used to. And many younger people don’t live in small towns anymore.
But at least for now, the needs of Pemberton will likely be met by ready and willing volunteers whose efforts will keep those life-saving services close to home for residents. All of us can take a lesson from their example of serving their neighbors and fellow man.
Madel stands up for country, state before party
Thumbs up to GOP gubernatorial candidate Chris Madel for taking a principled approach to ending his bid for governor, saying he could no longer accept the retribution from the Republican Party and the Trump administration being inflicted on his home state.
He said he could no longer support the national GOP’s “stated retribution on the citizens of our state, nor can I count myself a member of a party that would do so.”
The Waseca native and prominent Twin Cities attorney said he supported the immigration efforts to remove criminals from the country, but he said the effort has “expanded far beyond its stated focus on true public safety threats,” according to a report in the Star Tribune.
Madel was a newcomer to the race and was usually listed in polls in the top three GOP candidates. He would have been an outsider and formidable candidate to take on Democrats in a blue state.
We wish we would see more of Madel’s character in other GOP candidates who have so far not condemned any Trump administration tactics that killed two innocent U.S. citizens in Minnesota. Many had not even called for an impartial investigation into the killings but were content to have almost no investigation at all.
The Operation Metro Surge, Madel said, will hurt any and every Republican candidate running this fall in Minnesota elections.
“National Republicans have made it nearly impossible for a Republican to win a statewide election in Minnesota,” he told the Star Tribune. He said he also needed to consider his family in his decision.
“I have to look my daughters in the eye and tell them, ‘I believe I did what was right.’ And I am doing that today,” he said.
Madel also joins a growing chorus of other Republicans on a national scale who are calling for ICE to defend its tactics and appear before Congress and possibly to reduce funding to the rogue agency. Madel said he planned to return all campaign contributions he received.
Let’s hope Republicans can look to Madel for their role model in how to speak truth to power and be loyal to their country instead of their party.