Anyone Can Do My Job
by Steven P. Velasquez May 29, 2009 So what does it take to do my job? Well to begin with, watch a few episodes of "ER", "Third Watch" and "House." Then read a couple of tabloid stories in the local news rag and lastly, take a few completely unrelated classes in a community college and bring some strong opinions with you too! Jesus Christ! I sometimes live a personal nightmare with my, all too often, misunderstood profession. Oh no, please don't think it's because of the recurrent dreams I have of the screams and the cries of the injured, the ill and the maimed. Oh no, this nightmare takes place when I'm conscious, when I'm completely alert and when I'm performing the thing I do most next to breathing these days -- my job! I received a double-whammy a few weeks ago while assigned to the medic unit that covers Newark Liberty International Airport in Newark, NJ. My partner and I were dispatched to one of the terminals for a ...