Listening for a siren

I'm pretty sure most Cape Gir-ardeans who care about their city and its future are in favor of the quarter-cent sales tax for the fire department that is on next Tuesday's ballot.

But will they go to the polls and vote?

What a shame it would be if the proposed sale tax fails because folks who want city employees to get raises and want our police officers and firefighters to have the latest lifesaving equipment don't show up to vote.

To be truthful, I have had reservations about what the city needs and what it has asked voters to pay for over the past couple of years. I think an aquatic park would be grand for Cape Girar-deau, but I think it was wrong to include that multimillion-dollar project on a list of improvements that would have been funded with revenue from the tax plan that failed. I thought it was wrong because voters who would agree to add to their tax burden for city essentials would be put off by a nonessential expense like a water park.

After that first tax plan failed, I was pretty convinced I was right. But the more I thought about it, I began to question why that tax plan really failed.

Yes, there were, no doubt, other skeptics like me. But many of us voted for that tax plan anyway, because the greater good of the city was at stake. We swallowed our concerns about the aquatic park and voted in favor of the whole package.

The more I think about it, the more convinced I am that the reason that plan failed was because not enough city voters bothered to participate in making what I consider to be a very important decision.

It's important because of what this city needs to be a first-rate city. And it's important because everyone, even those who don't vote, will have to live with the consequences if we wind up with city facilities and personnel that are second-rate. I don't like to think about living in a second-rate city.

I've heard from some city residents who say they are going to vote against the sales tax next Tuesday. And I've asked them why. One theme I hear repeated is their concern about using fire trucks to make first-responder calls in medical emergencies. Why, these no-voters ask, can't we use a smaller vehicle and save money?

Let me tell you a story.

A few years ago, my wife and I got up very early in the morning to leave for a long weekend trip to the Appalachians. As I stumbled around in the dark, I heard my wife fall in the hallway outside our bedroom. When I asked if she was hurt, she said she didn't think so. But she couldn't get up.

It didn't take long to figure out we needed help. I called 911 and asked for an ambulance. Within seconds I heard a siren, and the wailing got closer and closer to our house. In just two or three minutes after I dialed for help, well-trained firefighters were helping my wife. Although she was wide awake and lucid, the firefighters couldn't find a pulse strong enough to record. By then the ambulance was arriving, and the firefighters already had my wife on a gurney and out the door.

Thanks to the quick response, my wife's problem was diagnosed, and her life was saved.

I have to tell you this: I didn't care then, and I still don't care, if the sound of that siren came from a pumper truck or a Sherman tank.

If you think the sales tax and the city's future ought to be left up to someone else next Tuesday, I hope you'll reconsider and think about listening for a siren when you really need it.

R. Joe Sullivan is the editor of the Southeast Missourian.