The Racine firefighters union doesn't want to have anything to do with a parade float aimed at honoring public safety workers killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
But a lot of other people do.
"That would be a great float to have in our parade," said Jim Campbell, president of the Home of the Hamburger Inc., the sponsor of the upcoming Burger Fest and parade in August in Seymour.
Patty Penn, co-chairwoman of the Heritage Days Parade committee in South Milwaukee, would also like to showcase the float being sponsored by fire Lt. Matt Gorniak and his church's youth group.
Awesome! Meanwhile, the union is doubling down:
Reached Friday, Craig Ford, president of the International Association of Fire Fighters Local 321, defended his executive board members' unanimous decision not to offer a helping hand to the float or to march with it in their hometown parade.
"I think we made the right decision," Ford said. "The union is not going to use union resources to support this."
In their defense, I'll post this paragraph as well:
Ford said he and his colleagues do a lot of charity work and are deeply involved in the community. But the union cannot support every initiative...
Well, true dat. You can't do everything. But, boy, it sure sounded like they decided not to support this float because the guy behind it doesn't support the union's politics.
The name's Opportunity. P.R. Opportunity. You should listen to me. Just watch out for my evil twin.
By the way, I neglected to mention in my earlier post that Dan Bice is the columnist who broke the story. Should have done that. Did now.
Previously:
I'm pretty much OK with the union reps taking that action. I really don't see the upside of allowing those cheese-eating mugwumps to ride the coattails of real heroes, anyway. Better for voters to see them for what they are: public parasites.
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