Not Their Brother's Keeper

Gene Cranick lives, or rather lived, in a house in Obion County, Tennessee. Last week, his house caught fire and he called 911. The fire department arrived, sirens blaring - and did nothing. They watched as his house burned to the ground.

You see, Obion County requires all residents to pay an annual $75 surcharge above and beyond their existing local taxes for fire protection. And Cranick hadn't paid. When the fire engines arrived, the firefighters told him he was out of luck because he hadn't paid up. Cranick, who freely admits he forgot to pay the bill, offered to pay on the spot, but the firefighters refused. Instead, they simply stood around as Cranick frantically tried to get someone - anyone - to listen. His house went up in flames, killing his pets (three dogs and a cat) and literally reducing his life to ashes.

It was only when the fire started spreading to his neighbor's property that the fire department went to work. The neighbor had paid the bill, you see. So the firefighters saved the neighbor's house while ignoring Cranick's.

When the story hit the wires earlier this week, the general reaction was stunned incredulity. Commentators generally couldn't believe that professional firefighters, who devote their lives to protecting people's lives and property, would just stand around and watch a house burn because the homeowner hadn't paid a bill. Even Daniel Foster of the conservative National Review was horrified:

I have no problem with this kind of opt-in government in principle - especially in rural areas where individual need for government services and available infrastructure vary so widely. But forget the politics: what moral theory allows these firefighters (admittedly acting under orders) to watch this house burn to the ground when 1) they have already responded to the scene; 2) they have the means to stop it ready at hand; 3) they have a reasonable expectation to be compensated for their trouble?

Proving that some people will never let anything as bleeding-heart as doing what's right get in the way of ideological purity, Cranick was promptly attacked by the usual "I've got mine so screw you" crowd as a freeloader. And Glenn Beck (big surprise) put his vaunted compassion on display front and center:

And it goes nowhere if you go on to well, compassion, compassion, compassion, compassion or, well, they should have put it out. What is the fire department for? No. What is the $75 for? To keep the firemen available, to keep the fire trucks running, to pay for the fire department to have people employed to put the fire out. If you don't pay your $75, then that hurts the fire department. They can't use those resources and you would be sponging off of your neighbor's $75 if you they put out your neighbor's house and you didn't pay for it - I mean if your neighbor didn't pay for it, you did, and they put out their house, your neighbor is sponging off of your $75 and as soon as they put out the fire of somebody who didn't pay the 75 bucks, no one will pay $75.

Even putting aside the obvious failure here of government services by subscription, the callous selfishness is just staggering. What kind of people would not only stand around and watch as a man's house burns to the ground, but actually applaud the firefighters who allow it to happen? Would they also congratulate cops who let a woman who hadn't paid a police surcharge be raped and murdered? Or maybe they'd cheer on doctors who let someone bleed to death in the ER because he doesn't have health insurance.

In Genesis 4:9, Cain asks God, "Am I my brother's keeper?" The answer to that, as given by those who said that Cranick was rightfully SOL, is not just "no," but "hell no."

This, in a nutshell, illustrates so much of what is wrong in America today. In so many instances, we have forgotten what it means to be a society and to take care of each other. We need to rediscover that.