LETTERS

Thank you for your service

Posted 9/9/21

To the Editor: I just read the one-hundredth article about the Warwick Firefighters use or alleged misuse of their employment contracts. Talk about making a mountain out of a molehill! This issue has been blown WAY out of proportion, in my opinion. The

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LETTERS

Thank you for your service

Posted

To the Editor:

I just read the one-hundredth article about the Warwick Firefighters use or alleged misuse of their employment contracts. Talk about making a mountain out of a molehill! This issue has been blown WAY out of proportion, in my opinion. The ONLY thing that remains clear is that the firefighters care more about their own families’ well-being over their employer, the City of Warwick. Does that come as a surprise to ANYONE? Should it?

Please, with a showing of hands; how many people reading this article feel that these life-risking individuals were so wrong?

How many of us would not take advantage of a clause in their employment agreement that allows for a little “extra” money or benefits for our families? Hold them up high so I can count them all. Just as I thought. NOT ONE!

Then Rob Cote bid on a Warwick Fire Department contract to train the Firefighters in scuba diving, did he submit a bid that favored the City or the 80,000 taxpayers that are paying the tab? HELL NO! His bid favored Rob Cote’s family so much that it was immediately voted down as incredibly excessive! Isn’t his attack a retaliation? Isn’t he guilty of the exact same thing he’s accusing the Warwick Fire Department of? Isn’t it suspicious to you, the reader, that he started this smear campaign right after that? It is to me.

Maybe the future city contracts should be written a little more clear. Maybe there shouldn’t be as much “flexibility.” Maybe. But aren’t those things renegotiated with EVERY NEW CONTRACT? Of course they are. The only clear result of this many-year investigation is the black eye it gave the city I love, and that angers me. The turmoil, and unrest of this witch hunt, is causing one thousand percent more destruction. The damage to Warwick’s image will make good people want to leave our city, rather than move into it.

I, for one, will respond by putting our Warwick Police and Warwick Firefighters on the same level of respect as our Veterans. These brave men and women risk their lives and health every day, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. They get paid the national average; not more. Their benefits and pension aren’t much different than their peers in other cities and states. But there is one, huge, difference. The Warwick Police and especially The Warwick Firefighters put up with an unbearable amount of crap-criticism from certain people who absolutely abuse the First Amendment. And they’ve had to do it now, for several years. Enough is enough! They deserve much more respect than that.

So here is the way I have decided to deal with it, and I invite anyone reading this to join me.

Starting today, whenever I see a Warwick Policeperson or a Warwick Firefighter, I will, out of respect, say “Thank you for your service.” I believe this is the very least I (we?) can do to show our appreciation and empathy for what these brave people have had to endure over the last few years. It is time to make their contributions to our City, acknowledged and appreciated.

Please join me.

Happy Autumn everyone.

Richard Corrente

Warwick

veteran, veterans, thank you

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