Do you remember how America sung the praises of firefighters after the September 11, 2001 attacks? I do; I remember it very well. The heroes, as they were then called, became almost synonymous with celebrities, especially with the celebrities who instructed their fans to do the same. Big business also capitalized on the firefighter craze, making several box office smashes (and blunders), children's books and graphic novels based on firefighting. But that was not all. There were t-shirts, posters, toys, and various collectibles all forged with the firefighting image. But celebrities made the real profits. The firefighters were mostly left behind. In June of 2021, firefighters in the bay area were being paid a whopping $13.25 starting; that is less than some people in the bay area make working fast food jobs, which tend to pay as high $16 an hour. "The federal firefighters are often working side-by-side with crews  from Cal Fire and other agencies who often make double what they do." (NBC Bay Area News) Wow, thirteen bucks an hour is the hero wage huh? I think most people in this case would rather play the villain. Many firefighters have left the field for other careers in the private sector that pay more, leaving the climate crisis to literally burn California homes to the ground. The funny thing about betraying your heroes is that the decision usually results in you losing your livelihood or even your life. Here is an excerpt from an article in which an obviously grief-stricken firefighter recounts the horrors of being a firefighter, eventually admitting that no firefighter leaves unscathed, "They will never feel the profound sadness that we do as a result of  seeing too much. They will never breathe in the smell of death as it  lingers on the recently deceased, before the undertaker does his work.  They will never wonder how they will even make it home, and get on with  things after what they've witnessed." (firerescue1.com) All of that while having to cope with the fact that there are high school students who earn a higher wage than you do. These are your heroes and you have turned your backs on them. The military has been another victim of this hero abandonment. Do your remember the flag pins Americans once wore? I do; I still remember thinking to myself, "give it some time and those flag pins will be in the garage with the Pokemon cards and the beanie babies, doing nothing more than collecting dust and making useless clutter." And I was right, of course. As of 2015, 1.5 million veterans were living in poverty in America; that figure has likely gotten worse over time. "The veteran poverty rate for vets between 18 and 34 years old is higher than all other age groups. This group, of course, means that the veterans of the Gulf War and Afghanistan have higher poverty rates than other veterans." (nvf.org) When one understands just how far the mighty fall in America, it becomes easy to understand why some veterans and firefighters may find Trumpism and the radical right appealing; despair breeds radicalism. This is why I was so dismayed to see medical professionals being referred to as heroes, and now they are experiencing the backlash as well. Nurses and doctors are being fitted with panic buttons because attacks in hospitals have become so frequent. But the health shit show does not stop there: Standford Healthcare cut nurses and doctors' salaries by a whopping 20% while those doctors and nurses were treating covid patients, Kaiser laid off hundreds of healthcare workers in May 2021 alone, hours were slashed for healthcare workers in San Jose, and that is just skimming the surface. 24,000 nurses from California and Oregon are threatening to strike due to mistreatment and low wages. USC nurses went on strike in 2021. In August nursing strikes in Mass. forced hospitals to hire less skilled replacements. Where were the outcries? The poems? The pins? The toys? The documentaries? Nowhere to be found.