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Show Cyclops r By BRYAN GRAY Paramedic flap j excites readers I A front-page news item in last week's Davis County Clipper created a stir within the law enforcement en-forcement and medical community. Within an hour of the newspaper's distribution, I received my first telephone call-and that call (from a reporter at another newspaper who lambasted the Clipper) wouldn't be the last. The flap resulted from a story on the paramedics, a juicy little piece filled with anonymous quotes from ghostly police chiefs, a verbal slap at the Sheriff's chief deputy K. D. Simpson and an animated quip from Sheriff Harry Jones, who labeled his own chief deputy as a pain in the rearbut an effective pain in the rear. Should the Clipper have published pub-lished the story? Certainly. A weekly week-ly community newspaper should reflect local concerns, not merely rehash week-old softball scores and give fitting tributes to Eagle Scouts. Should the Clipper have allowed the use of anonymous quotes? Probably not, but I have no doubt that the comments were accurately reported. I told the Cyclops callers, "Don't be concerned with whether or not the Clipper should have run the ' story. The most intriguing part of the story was its content-and the rather strange twists of reasoning. A few examples: One anonymous police chief called Capt. Simpson a "vicious man." I have to agree. Just last week I rode with Simpson in his police car, and he refused to turn on the air conditioning, an unbelievably vicious act considering consider-ing the 100-degree weather. No wonder Sheriff Jones called him a pain in the rear. But what qualities do we seek in a leader? According to police chief rhetoric, Simpson is an aggressive sort who gets his way and makes things happen. As a taxpayer, I congratulate him. Few leaders are successful without ruffling some feathers. Lee Iacocca didn't pull Chrysler out of the bankruptcy tank by trading happy talk with incompetent incompe-tent assembly line workers skilled in faulty mufflers... And when Gen. George Patton spied an undisciplined un-disciplined soldier, he didn't walk up to the grunt and say, "Let's do lunch!" If Capt. S impson is to be criticized, the criticism should concern con-cern the operation of his department. depart-ment. And that's exactly what the anonymous police chiefs didn't do. In fact, according to the Clipper ar- tide, "All chiefs agreed that the county paramedics do good work and are an asset to the community." If that's the case, then give Simpson Simp-son a medal! And how about this twist of reasoning: At a time when taxpayers are looking at methods of saving money by consolidating government, govern-ment, the police chiefs by definition, defini-tion, territorial animals-want to split up the county paramedics and establish their own systems. One police chief, thankfully anonymous, said many different paramedic systems could actually save money. It's enough to make an economics professor weep. Sharing the cost among a large group of people is obviously less expensive than having smaller entities shoulder their own expensive projects. pro-jects. That's why independent grocery stores team up to make volume vol-ume purchases and share advertising advertis-ing costs... that's why the Deseret News and Salt Lake Tribune combined com-bined to share an advertising staff and production plant. It's simple economics.. .If a grocery store only sells three apples per day, the cost of maintaining the produce department is certainly more expensive on a per-apple basis than a store which sells 1,000 apples. If every hospital in Utah I spent $100 million on a high-risk I infant center, the cost of a hospital I stay would skyrocket If every city I in Utah established its own air I force, even Jon Huntsman couldn't I pay his property tax. I The paramedic program is ho I different. The cost of a paramedic I program has been estimated at I $300,000. That means the 6,000 I citizens in Woods Cross would I have to pay $50 per person instead I of the current shared cost of $4.90 I per person. I My gut reaction is that citizens I don't really care about this ter- I ritorial rift. When one police chief I grumbled to me that county I paramedics were "invading" his I city and ticketing wrongdoers,; I I chuckled and told him, "If : a I paramedic can nail a drunk driver I weaving onto my front lawn, then I more power to him. If my house lis I burning down or I'm being chased I by a gang of thugs, I don't par- I ticularly care about the shape of an I officer's badge." I And neither do I care whether I Capt. Simpson wears a perpetual I halo or throws rocks at stray dogsj I I happen to like the man. But even if I I didn't, I'd give him my support for I a job well done. -' I I |