Final Word: Why not use donations to help ‘seasonal’ hotshots’ families?

So the tally for the fundraising so far for the Yarnell Hill Firefighters is at $9 million.

A lot of money, for sure, but obviously Arizonans hearts are overflowing for the families of the 19 fallen.

Last week on the show, we talked about the fact that the families of the “seasonal” firefighters aren’t going to get the same benefits as the full time employees and we sympathized with their situation. But if the payouts would bankrupt the city, and the city says they would, you have to understand their side too.

But here is a pot of money, a big one, and a grant committee will meet next month to try to disburse the money. Is it out of the question that some of those “seasonal employees'” families get a a little more of the charitable donations than the others?

That $9 million is not technically public money, in that it was voluntarily donated. It’s charity in its purest form.

So let’s try to make it a little more equal for those families. Those families lost just much as the “full-time” employees’ families, but because of a necessary technicality in the city’s contract with its firefighters, they don’t get the same death benefits.

Sometimes life isn’t fair but that’s when fellow citizens come in and donate because we don’t like when life isn’t fair.

Shouldn’t we get to make it right when we can?