I’ve been sharing many posts I have saved from my first blog site back in 2011. I’ve been posting them as I originally wrote them, something somewhat difficult for me. I’ve grown much since those early days. I so want to update, edit, and correct those early expressions, but I think it’s best to leave them; to provide a glimpse into who I was then. My writing style has evolved and matured and I’m certain it will continue to do so.
When I read back through them I see a lot of raw, unbridled passion. I did so love the job, even as a volunteer. It was the center of my universe in many ways. Fast-forward to today and it’s mostly gone. Taken away. Torn from my grasp. Some was my doing; headstrong, passive-aggressive, unyielding.
In the end, I was not willing to compromise my ethos, my values, my essence. I watched then, and continue to see today, a fire service shed its core values. Risk avoidance is the metric and Blue Card is the mechanism. I see departments across the country over-teaching essentials, burying recruits in academia bullshit while they continue to decline the level of service to the very community they swore to protect.
Today’s firefighter is more important than the customer’s life.
This I cannot wrap my head around. Firefighters today do not walk the talk. They Google it. They can tell you ad nauseam why they shouldn’t go inside a burning building. They are the product of a culture corrupted by 16 Life Saving Initiatives.
The generation of men who wore tin hats and threw wooden ladders while risking everything to save you, has joined the horses…
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