We occupy, as IT has been said many times, a position in society that is unique-unique in many ways but none more critical to understand and appreciate than the uniqueness of the commitment of the firefighter, critical to understand for the firefighter and those who would choose to lead. To paraphrase President Lincoln, firefighters approach each opportunity to serve, “With charity toward all and malice toward none.” The defense of our communities and the protection of our citizens are a great and honorable calling. In our commitment to the mission, we accept the risks and the rewards alike. Our commitment is what emboldens a firefighter to be able to enter into a deadly environment to save the life of another.
The leaders of the fire service know dedicated firefighters don’t put their lives at risk for medals, or glory, or fame. They do it because they truly believe, if not me, who? If not here, where? If not now, when? Our leadership understands firefighters have made this commitment consciously, thoughtfully. Only the uninitiated think otherwise. To paraphrase Sir William Francis Butler, “The nation that will insist on drawing a broad line of demarcation between the firefighter and the thinking man is liable to find its firefighting done by fools and its thinking done by cowards.” No dedicated firefighter takes this commitment foolishly, and our leaders are anything but cowards.
It has been said by the most eloquent of philosophers that the most powerful human disposition is self-preservation. That being universally understood, the most elaborate and heartfelt tributes and recognitions go out to those who have chosen to honor their commitment and who have sacrificed their lives so that others might live. Understandably, these tributes and recognitions are rare, because such heroism is rare.
But along with that recognition and understood during those tributes is the fundamental knowledge that those sacrifices were never in vain, never done recklessly, and that the organization and industry, whether fire, police, medicine, or military, understood this commitment by the members and did everything in their ability to try as best they could to avoid placing members where this commitment would be tested. That is the weight of leadership.
If command-level officers in our industry are to expect the community to continue to support and supply us and to continue to join our ranks, then we all must endeavor endlessly to reassure our communities of our commitment to the heroic dream. To say “dream” is not to say this quest is reminiscent of Don Quixote and fantasy, but rather it is embraced and pursued with focus and dedication. We must be as committed as President John F. Kennedy was when he said, “I have been guided by the standard John Winthrop set before his shipmates …. We must always consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill-the eyes of all people are upon us.” Our communities’, our nation’s, and our firefighters’ eyes are upon us.
Leading, training, and educating men and women who have made this commitment are an incredible burden, an honorable burden, the burden of the officer. As leaders, we must do everything we can to reconcile the mission and safety, to prevent as best we can the conditions that cause men and women of honor to be forced to weigh their commitment.
Being a leader requires that you have a heroic dream; it requires that you have a bold vision. Being a leader requires you to embrace that dream; share that vision; and devote all your energy, love, and resources to seeing that dream, that vision, to fulfillment.
Fire service leaders must be self-aware, constantly evaluating ourselves and our actions, constantly working on our strengths and our weaknesses, seeking to always improve as people and as firefighters. We must commit ourselves to innovation; commit to living with one foot raised; always ready to accept a new opportunity, a new possibility, method, or tactic. We must be willing to live with limitless love-love of the mission, of all firefighters, of our communities, of our countries, and of all mankind.
Fire service leaders must do more to demonstrate that they do embrace a bold and heroic vision, a vision of a day when no firefighters will have to weigh their commitment, that we truly are committed to the quest of a day when through training and education, countless hours and days, countless years and generations of devotion to this dream, that day will come-a day when no firefighters will ever again have to weigh their commitment to our sacred mission and lay upon the altar of humanity their last full measure.
That day is a heroic vision worthy of the men and women who lead the fire service. Bertrand Russell once said, “The performance of public duty is not the whole of what makes a good life; there is also the pursuit of private excellence.” Both are to be found in the fire service. Our duty is honorable, respected, and critical, but equally important are the character and excellence of our members. The most admired leadership of the fire service has always sought after and encouraged private excellence-not just to protect the reputation of our hallowed industry but to advance our society and our culture.
It has often been remarked that success is not measured by the quantity of the response but by the quality of the result. And that result will come-a day when never again will firefighters have to risk it all, weigh their commitment, and give their last full measure. It may be generations into the future, but it begins with you. It begins today.
Transgressions and Forgiveness
Art, Reality, and Influence
Ideologues and Their Bad Behavior
