The Life of a Fireman... Wait can I say that?

My Department has a rich and proud history, from its volunteer beginnings in 1850 to the establishment of a paid professional force in 1883, to the pride in which we hold and carry ourselves today.  It’s a celebrated history displayed on station walls throughout the city and commemorated annually at our memorial honoring the fallen.  A history recognized by a member of my station when he came across an original full page newspaper article from 1937 entitled, “Ho, For the Life of a Fireman.”  It displays a collection of staged photos of on-the-job life, from the enthusiastic climbing of an aerial to the sober-faced tillering of a truck.  Along with stating the name of each individual pictured, it proclaims that my department is “second to none.”  My friend decided to frame this article and gift it to our training station, a place where our probationary firefighters are first assigned after academy to acclimate them to the job through emergency response coupled with constant evaluation.  It found a home on the kitchen wall, where I saw it for the first time a few months back.  I was instantly drawn to it, due to its excellent condition and the representation of the job from a bygone era.  Personally, I thought it would look better on the wall of my station, but I felt that this was an appropriate place for it: 1) Because of the nature and function of this particular house, 2) It also fit with the other black and white pictures of a similar time period that line this station’s walls.  A few weeks later it came as a big surprise to find out it had been taken down.  It supposedly didn’t represent the changing nature of our department.  My understanding is that this was seen as an issue of gender more than an issue of ethnicity.  I don’t agree with that.  I feel the article correlates equally to both, yet holds a significance greater than either.  A significance rooted in why I feel it should not have been taken down.

For those of you don’t personally know me, (or who haven’t creeped my Facebook page yet), I am a man in possession of brown skin.  My skin is infused with ¼ part Japanese, equal quarters Jamaican and African-American, and ¼ part European (a French-German Mix).   I grew up surrounded by different peoples and cultural traditions (which allows me to insult most backgrounds in the Firehouse without repercussion).  But more importantly, my diverse ethnicity helped shape my understanding of the sameness that exists across racial lines.

 I’m sharing my background to make this point.  Not one of those men pictured in the aforementioned article or in any of the frames lining this particular station’s walls, looks like me.  And guess what?  I don’t care.  I don’t care, because I understand what they represent.  They represent not just a segment of my professional history, but part of the deep foundation of individuals in this job who earned the respect and trust that I receive today from the vast majority of the public.  It is a respect and trust that I am expected to protect and to pass on to future generations of firefighters.  I look upon those pictures with pride (and in some cases envy, when viewing the fires they battled).

 I also understand that my department is proud of me.  Proud to celebrate the changing face of the service as it continues to more accurately reflect the public we serve.  I don’t possess a short sidedness of history or the self-absorption of my own heritage not to realize where the roots of my department come from, or to where they are presently growing.  I feel that taking the article down is a missed opportunity to educate our new hires on our tradition and departmental direction.  Or possibly we are hiring the wrong individuals if we are concerned about offending their sensibilities of gender and/or ethnicity, even after we’ve shown them otherwise, by giving them our badge.  

Now if you simply walked into the building located next to this station, you would see the main hallway covered with the framed pictures of my department’s Firefighter of the Year recipients.  If you stood before the 2012 honoree, you would see a professional who is well deserved of that recognition, a woman.  A firefighter celebrated for her ability, not her gender.  That same year, our city appointed our first female Chief of Department.  These are two resounding steps that represent the changing nature of my department, steps that I feel fall quieter with the act of denying a word.  A word that was especially true for the year 1937.  Fireman. 

Ultimately, this issue has already been addressed by my agency, in our most public space.  Residing in the downtown lobby of our headquarter station is a beautifully restored steam powered pumper from 1911.  Directly across from it hangs a collection of photographs on two adjoining walls.  The left face is a floor to ceiling image of one of our volunteer fire companies from the turn of the century, all white men.  The right wall displays the face of my Bureau today.  It shows the various activities that comprise our emergency response, performed by men and women of varied ethnicities.  Coincidentally (or perhaps intentionally) there is a sign standing in front of that gorgeous pumper.  It shows the horse drawn apparatus of the past and its evolution to the frontline rigs we have today, and is titled “The Changing Face of Firefighting.”  Both of these displays show how we can embrace our past while simultaneously celebrating our present.       

I’m sharing my thoughts on this matter because I know that this issue is not unique to my department.  My personal opinion is that we cannot change the past nor should we try to.  I feel hiding behind the smokescreen of political correctness and fear only belittles our professional history and diminishes the impact of the future we are striving for.

For updates on future posts I can be found on Facebook at- Adz Deep.     

The Life of a Fireman...