<These are the COPS we're talking about, aren't we?

Fire police are people trained in traffic control during emergencies and other odd events affecting the roads. Traffic accidents, races on public roads, street fairs, parades, disabled traffic signals, directing parking at large public events: this is where they work, freeing police and firefighters to deal with other events, or other problems associated with the emergency. They work with police and fire departments, and are trained and licensed, but they're not official police in the sense of law enforcement. They have no powers to investigate or arrest above and beyond any citizen's, and they are not government employees in the way that state troopers and constables are. The law enforcement officers colloquially known as police could (and would) be challenged in court for refusing assistance to anyone based on religious belief. These guys can get away with this precisely because they're volunteers, though the communities with fire police units do depend on them to maintain order.

It's as if the volunteer fire department decided that, based on the firefighters' religious beliefs, they were not going to answer any fire calls phoned in from synagogues or mosques, notifying the Jews and the Muslims that they were going to have to make other arrangements, or stop teaching things that offend the firefighters for service to resume.

This boycott is a big problem for the YMCA because this is their major fundraiser, and they can't do it without trained traffic control people because of the safety and insurance issues. They'll get the help they need, though, even if some people have to become trained fire police between now and the event date. So far, the letters to the editor are running 2-to-1 against the fire police.

The Amish wouldn't worry about this kind of thing at all. They have their own rules for their own people, and they don't attempt to make anyone else live by them. (In fact, you can't convert to Amish religion: you have to be born into it. Genetic diseases are starting to be a problem among the Amish. We see a lot of cousins marrying.) Amish concerns as pertaining to "the English" (which includes everyone who is not Amish) only touch on not being forced to adopt "English" ways. Some Amish have "English" friends, the community wants commercial contact, and insofar as they pay their taxes they expect the protection due any American citizen, but otherwise the Amish want to be left alone.

On the other hand, we still have to contend with William Curtis's Institute for Scientific and Biblical Research, a local organization. I'd post a link, but their website has apparently, mercifully, died. The focus of the Institute's research is to break science's arm fitting it into a Bible-shaped box. Did you know that Mt. St. Helen's eruption provides proof that evolution is false? ;D

See you in the funny papers -- especially since I already live here...

Regards--
Mary Anne