The state of our nation has me quite uneasy. The pull of events from the right and the left has me quite concerned indeed. However, my concern is for things other than the events surrounding our current struggle to elect a new president. No my friends, my concerns lie as they always have with folks like you and me who roll out the doors of our fire stations in defense of our American "way of life."
The fire service has been a part of the greatest moments in our history. I feel like I am poaching the territory of my friend Paul Hashagen when I speak of history, but so be it. From the earliest days of our Republic, members of the fire service have played a part. One need look no further than the work of Benjamin Franklin to see how important of a role we have played. Other examples come from the Fire Zouaves of the civil war era and the many fire personnel who served in all the wars of the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries. Think about the Honolulu firefighters who perished on December 7, 1941.What I am suggesting is that all of the political hubbub we are enduring has the potential to take people’s eyes off the prize of proper local fire protection. The same could easily hold true from our side of the street. I know this because I have had to become embroiled in political shenanigans to protect the interests of the fire districts in my community. Politicians were seeking to portray us as the bad guys to the taxpayers. Let me assure you that the same holds true at the county, state, and federal levels.
Just look at how much effort the Congressional Fire Services Institute (CFSI) has to put forward each year in order to keep our issues before the eyes of Congress. It is my fervent belief that left to their own devices, Congress would have done away with the U.S. Fire Administration, the National Fire Academy, and the Emergency Management Institute a long time ago. In their eyes, fire was always a state and local issue. As a man who fought hard for these institutions back in the 1970’s, I am here to state categorically that there are people in our government who dislike the fire service.
Kudos to the work of Bill Webb, Sean Carroll, and all other fine folks at the Institute CFSI infrastructure.
Thank the Lord for people like Curt Weldon, Bill Pascrell, Peter King, and Steny Hoyer, among many others, who have labored long and hard in the vineyards of Congress carrying our message to their fellow travelers. We owe them a great debt.
Think about this my friends. While all of the political hoo-hah was going on in Cleveland, and in Philadelphia, the brave men and women of the fire service stood by awaiting the call to duty. While the politicians were busy preening before the cameras the other night in Philadelphia, members of the Adelphia Fire Company were busy: they were battling a structure fire on a steamy July evening. No one posed for the cameras or gave great speeches. They left their homes to come to the aid of a fellow citizen. Because that’s what they do. They extinguished the fire and save a puppy dog, because that’s who they are and what they do.
All across our nation people in fire stations were standing by to address the needs of their communities. This has nothing to do with borders and everything to do with budgets. At the heart of this lies a concern with the role of terrorists in our society. Whether they are hardened criminals from overseas, self-radicalized nut jobs from Middle America, or just some local felon, we in the fire service must continually prepare for their sudden invasion of our living space. In our world, all lives are important.
We must not be distracted from properly performing our critical role in society. No matter who wins the election in November, you and I will still be rolling out to address society’s ills. We are the court of last resort for people facing the worst days of their lives. We must be upright and moral people in this battle for the soul of our nation.
It is up to us to train and educate or people. It is incumbent upon us to practice the skills which are so critical to our efforts. And we must always learn from our mistakes.
We need more of this sort of attitude in society. We need more people helping people. We need to reach out to people and tell our story, and it must be a good story and if we are to reach the people we need to perpetuate our fire service.
We must let society know that we “Stand on Guard’ for them.
