It’s about saving lives …….

To all the people who are trying to make the thousands of post-Helene rescue missions political, I have three words.

Shame on you.

I don’t know how you were raised, but take it from someone who spent a large chunk of his adult life rescuing people from disasters: politics had absolutely nothing to do about any of it.

As a volunteer firefighter, a rescue squad member and law enforcement officer, I can safely say that not one time when I was carrying out my duty did I ask a victim if he or she was a Republican or Democrat.

And not a single one of those people we rescued asked us what our political affiliation was.

We were there to help people, no matter who they were, and we did our best to save as many lives as we could.

I’m sad to say that some didn’t make it. I helped pull charred bodies from devastating house fires, badly injured adults and children from terrible auto accidents, kids from homicide crime scenes.

A good many times we rescuers were summoned to storm aftermaths, not on the scale of Helene but it seemed close to it at the time.

All we thought about was how many lives we could save. Period.

That is exactly what’s going on in our beloved North Carolina mountains right now.

Good-hearted and dedicated volunteers are doing all they can every minute of every day for people whose lives have changed forever.

Most of us know – though we try not to talk about it around the victims – that it’s going to take a long, long time for the storm-stricken areas to get back to at least a semblance of what they once were.

But usually the first thing that comes out of a rescuers mouth is “we’ve got you; everything’s going to be all right.”

Even when we know their lives will never be the same again.

And for ignorant people to throw politics into the mix of tragedy and loss is completely and utterly wrong. It’s just that simple.

Keep your political beliefs to yourself. There’s a time and a place when you can vent, but right now the Helene rescue effort is neither the place nor the time.

Let the rescuers do their jobs.

Nothing should be coming out of your mouths but praise for all the people who are doing so much, often risking their own lives to save others.

You’ve all seen the news clips. Some of the rescuers have lost their own lives in their work to save others.

Think about those good people before you run your mouth.

Right now, prayers and praise are way more effective than petty politics.

Get on your knees and thank the Lord there are people who are willing to sacrifice whatever is necessary to help their fellow human beings.

“Volunteers are the only human beings on the face of the earth who reflect this nation’s passion, unselfish caring, patience and just plain loving one another,” Erma Bombeck once observed.

It’s time we started showing that love.