Harry Carter Commentary
The Fire Service Has A Voice: After All
HARRY R. CARTER, Ph.D., MIFireE
Sometimes an author has to wait a lifetime to see whether their writing has
an impact. I often wonder if Charles Dickens ever knew of his impact on the
world. Or Shakespeare or Socrates. Fortunately, I shall not have to wait that
long.
Last week, I crafted a piece of commentary whose sole intent was to grab the
reader by the throat, shake them, and make them think. It would appear that my
commentary achieved the desired effect. Thanks for sharing your thoughts with
me.
As a writer and author, I want you to know that there are a number of
literary styles available for me to use. Sometimes I seek to coax you in a
given direction, and at other times it is my intent to cajole. At
still other times we writers find it effective and efficient to rant and call
for action. When time is short, there is no time for praise and
pleading. You read my article you vented. Now that I have done my
work, you must do yours. Get that application into the mail this week.
This was not a time to smile and say pretty please. So I didn't.
I would like to say that some unnamed folks at FEMA thanked me for the candor of
my call to action.
Folks, I want to state for the record that the enabling legislation for the Fire
Bill law was passed by a Congress that gave the United
States Fire Administration some SEVERELY, I repeat SEVERELY, SHORT
DEADLINES. Many favors were called in to make what has happened
occur. The blame for the short deadlines rests not on the USFA,
but Congress and the Office of Management & Budget (OMB). But
because we are the fire service, we broke our collective keisters, and got the
rules out of the door. The same must hold true for you.
Once we did our job, the massive array of nameless bureaucrats in the bowels
of the Federal Bureaucracy, a.k.a. The Red Tape Squad, sought to tack on
a number of "mandatory' federal forms. Some of the forms were:
- The "do you water your horses on alternate Saturdays form?" (Dept. of Agriculture)
- The "do you promise to tell the truth if we ask you to lie form?" (CIA or FBI, I’m not sure which.)
- The how many people use your bathroom in the firehouse form? (Dept. of Health and Human Services)
- The have you filled out all of the paperwork form? (There are several forms like this that must be completed under the terms of the paperwork reduction act?)
Each of these special government forms carries with it an explanation package
that is thicker than the NFPA’ s Fire Protection Handbook, or the old Chilton
Motor Manual. I can only imagine how much thicker and tougher the whole FIRE
Bill application package would have been had it not been for the troops at
the U.S. Fire Administration and FEMA.
What you actually saw in your package was about 1/2 of what it would have
been if it had not been for the efforts of the people from USFA.
They dug their heels in for you, and said no. And, according to my
sources, who would only speak on conditions of anonymity, there will be a
long-term cost to the USFA. The USFA budget is now in further
danger because they went to the mat for you, and the rest of the people who are
out there whining about how tough it is to follow a set of directions and fill
in some blanks.
Someday, I will probably craft a very long and insightful article regarding
the extent of the reservoir of political capital that USFA was forced to expend
to get this bill rammed through the OMB. And how some very dedicated people
worked some unreasonably long hours to get the packages out so that people like
you can have something to whine about. But that is for a time after the success
or failure of the whole program has been determined.
I guess you folks out there in reader land only want me to stroke your egos.
It is OK for me to talk about how brave or how dedicated the fire service is. It
is OK for me to slam the cops. It is OK for me to slam the bean counters and the
politicians of our land. But heaven help me when I attempt to smack the fire
service around a little. Wow, what a flood of complaints came flowing into my
email mailbox.
You would have thought that I spit on someone’s mother, while shoving an
apple pie into her face; all the while trying to burn an American Flag. If one
more person tells me that I have no idea how tough it is out there in the
trenches, I think I will turn in my writer’s association membership card.
Folks, I go to fires, I respond to alarm malfunctions, and I attend drills as a
firefighter and ex-Chief. I work on budgets as a Fire Commissioner.
People are telling me that they have had committees of many working days, and
weeks on crafting the perfect grant application. People cried to me, whined to
me, and people abused the living daylights out of me. And in one case a fire
chief actually wrote a message that said "we are too poor and too white
to qualify." At least this man had the guts to sign his name, unlike
many other readers.
If your goal was to anger me or stop my writing efforts, I am sorry to
disappoint you. When a person goes public with their views, their name and their
pictures, such as I do every week, they expect to receive a number of different
views. I love to read your words, because they allow me to feel the heartbeat of
the American Fire Service. And I am truly honored that you will take the time
out of your busy week to share you thoughts with me.
I would suggest to you that I am perhaps the most "available"
writer in the American Fire Service today. This was said to me by a
friend recently, and I believe I said something like, " … yeah, yeah…"
but do you know what? I think my pal was right. All you have to do to get my
attention is send me an email message. You send your thoughts, and if you are
not profane, I will respond. I cannot answer anonymous notes, because there are
those of you that don’t have enough faith in your comments to include your
name, or maybe you just lack the guts. I did make an exception this week for the
Fire Chief "in the one cow town in Nevada", because he was so
wrong in what he said.
You want to say something to me, and you send me an email. I read the email
and craft a reply. Remember one simple fact gang. Each and every week I put my
name and my picture on the same page as my thoughts. And when you get a reply
from me, rest assured that I wrote those words.
Do you actually think that important people like George Will and William
Safire answer their own email message? I sincerely doubt it. I would imagine
that unless the writer is George W. Bush, Alan Greenspan, or someone with a
recognizable name, a staff assistant might get back to you, MAYBE.
I would also venture a guess that it is not George W. Bush’s signature on
that letter you received back from the White House. Unless of course, you
happened to be George Will or Tim Russert of NBC’s Meet the Press show.
BUT, when you get a reply from Harry Carter, I want to assure you that I
am the poor slug chained to the computer.
Perhaps I serve a real role in the American Fire Service. Or maybe I am just
Mrs. Carter’s husband, who does the laundry and takes out the garbage. Or
maybe I am Ellen, Katie, and Todd’s dad, a man proud of the accomplishments of
his children. Or is it my calling in life to play the tuba in four different
community bands. I guess I will just have to keep waking up and wondering.
To everyone who responded via the complaint button on my web site, please
accept a sincere thank you from me personally. You have given me a
perspective on the true nature of the American Fire Service, at the grass roots
level. There were probably a lot more of you who want to pound on me a little
bit, but were too busy to smack me around a little. I understand. I am at the
computer a lot more now. I am here for you.
The commentary in this column does not necessarily reflect those of Firehouse.Com, Firehouse
Magazine, their employees or parent company Cygnus Business Media.
Harry R. Carter, Ph.D., MIFireE, is an internationally known municipal
fire protection consultant and contributing editor to Firehouse Magazine. He recently retired as a Battalion Commander with the Newark, New Jersey Fire Department.
His commentary appears regularly on Firehouse.Com. For more commentary and information,
visit Carter's web site at www.harrycarter.com
Harry has published several books available for online ordering, including
Firefighting Strategy and Tactics
and Management in the Fire Service
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Content © Copyright 2000 - 2002 Harry R. Carter, Ph.D., L.L.C.
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