In a letter to the editor published in the Lincoln Journal Star, AFP-Nebraska Field Director Kurt Hammond explains why the City Council should have approved a study of privatization of the ambulance service.

Arrogance Creeps In

Recently the City Council considered studying privatization of the ambulance services of Lincoln Fire and Rescue ("Council rejects study on ambulance," July 27). The usual arguments by city bureaucrats were presented in opposition.

Fire Chief Niles Ford says we'd see degradation in service if we privatized ambulances.

With all due respect, to suggest offhand that private companies could not provide excellent, efficient emergency service seems narrow-minded. There is among elected and appointed officials a creeping arrogance and scorn for taxpayers and suspicion of anyone bold enough to admit to pursuing profit.

Taxpayers are treated as little more than a source of funds, not capable citizens, but wards to be tended.

There are many time-sensitive delivery services in town that provide consistent, often superb customer service, such as taxis and limousines, food delivery services, even newspapers, which regularly dispatch vehicles to customers' addresses. All include rapid response times to and from locations without incident. Why? The profit motive and competition.

Let us not allow Lincoln to go any further down the road to a public class and a private class, where the private class bears the harsh and impoverishing consequences of public class arrogance.

Kurt Hammond, field director, Americans for Prosperity-Nebraska