Why, Oh, Why does the Journal Star hate the Fire Department so damn much?

There must be a reason. Count on it to be stupid. Another year, another City budget under review, and yet another editorial from the brainiacs at the Journal Star stating there is no need to reopen Fire Station 11. This despite the fact every overpaid consultant the City has hired states that Peoria's older neighborhoods are underserved and at risk for lack of a better staffed and equipped Fire Department.

Flower baskets on Main Street? The editors say we NEED them! They improve the quality of life for every Peorian and are vital to the renaissance *snicker* underway in the Med Tech District. The $100,000 municipal band? A must! I went to a Muni Band concert last summer. Including myself there were seven people in attendance. Two of them old men who were - I swear - asleep.

You know what I think? Editor Mike Bailey or Editor Shelley Epstein has a personal vendetta against the Fire Department. There is a story here, and I need someone out there to tell me what it is. Did Firefighter's Union President Tony Ardis refuse to climb a tree to save Mike Bailey's cat? Did Shelley Epstein forget to chew before swallowing and had to have the Hemlich Maneuver applied by a snickering firefighter? Did some buff firefighter make a pass at some journalist's wife? Did said wife take him up on the offer?

Someone please e-mail me at polly@mailgenius.com and give me the scoop. Peoria is a small town and I'm sure just about everyone but moi knows. If the editorialists are going to continue advocating the endangering lives of citizens and firefighters by broadcasting their perverse desire to keep cutting the Fire Department budget, I think we all deserve full disclosure as to why. Why? Why? Why?!