National Firefighters Day Petition

Da Kid, who's on duty today, fowarded an email that had been sent to the stations by someone at headquarters. As soon as I started reading it I knew it was a chain letter. One of those like the cookie recipe or waking up in a hotel to find your innerds had been stolen.

I was half right. It is a chain letter. The difference is this one is for real:

"Hello, I am Connor Geraghty, of Rockville Centre, NY.

"I lost my Dad on September 11th; he was Chief Edward Geraghty, Battalion 9, New York City Fire Department. He lost his life with many other heroes that day, victims of the terrorists. Firefighters from all over have come to the aid and rescue of the tragedy in New York and Washington, D.C. Many firefighters have lost their lives to save someone else's; the truth of the matter is, they do this every single day. They truly are heroes."

Conner's email asks for support in establishing September 11 as National Firefighters Day.

About.com notes:

While we are still of the opinion that email petitions are inadvisable and mostly useless (for a variety of practical reasons), we're obliged to report that this one is not only sincere and authentic in origin, but may even have a shot at accomplishing its goal (or perhaps not — see March 2002 update below).

[snip]

As of March 2002, readers are reporting that Connor Geraghty's AOL mailbox is full and bouncing emails back to senders with an "Out of Service" error message.

Snopes points out an alternative:

For those still interested in establishing a National Firefighters Day, sponsoring a petition on the web rather than via e-mail is much more practical. Also, taking a few extra minutes to send letters to Congressional representatives rather than simply adding names to an e-petition would be a worthwhile effort.

I don't know that online petitions are any more effective than those that are emailed in chain letters. Still, the online one for a National Firefighers Day is here.