Wanted: Politically Correct Firefighters
By Bill Colley
No one with a house afire asks if the local fire department is Politically correct. Neighboring Berlin, Maryland is now exploring the idea. Last week the Mayor and Council in Berlin stripped the local fire company of 600-thousand dollars of funds. Is it because the trucks are running late because volunteers are sleeping through alarms? Hardly. It’s because some members of the department have a politically incorrect swagger. Some Berlin volunteers make jokes about sexual orientation and sometimes comment about the physical attributes of the opposite sex (the fire department remains a mostly male preserve).
Troubles started when the town board made a decision to professionalize some paramedic services. A rivalry developed between the departments and I suppose it isn’t unusual when such decisions are made. Apparently the newcomers didn’t appreciate the lack of respect from veteran volunteers and went complaining to the locally elected politicians.
Berlin is an old colonial community on the Lower Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay. It was home to seafaring hero Stephen Decatur. It’s an incredibly picturesque small community and has played host to multiple film crews. Movie buffs would recognize its streets from titles such as Tuck Everlasting and The Runaway Bride. In recent decades Berlin has attracted urban refugees looking for a quieter and simpler life. As a native of rural America I’m familiar with the type. They arrive expecting Andy, Barney and Aunt Bea and then they encounter the bluntness of the local culture. Rural people aren’t politically correct. They take the view newcomers should adopt the native culture and not impose outside mores.
The newcomers remake Main Street with bistros and art shops and sell bric-a-brac to the tourist trade from which they themselves originated. It infuriates them when the old families don’t share some of the same views of civilization. As a radio talk show host I’m familiar with the liberal-urban breed. They make blanket statements. “We aren’t that kind of people,” implies they speak for everyone.
Growing up in a small farming town I had great respect for volunteer firefighters. They were sometimes rough and they sometimes played hard and they were always at the ready to save lives. They would leave their homes on snowy and sub-zero nights and kiss their wives goodbye. I imagine every firefighter wonders responding to every alarm if this is the last one. The one from which they won’t return home. It’s why in my hometown the members of the local fire company were granted some latitude. They risked their lives and didn’t even get a paycheck. A few decades later and even many rural companies now have some paid staff. It’s the nature of changing rural America. One thing isn’t altered. The newly arrived stuffed shirts elected to town boards don’t often join volunteer departments. The stuffed shirts just issue orders and expect everyone near them will comply with forced march liberalism.
Local newspaper stories last week breathily reported many of the volunteer firefighters had been ordered to take sensitivity training. When the classes ended the volunteers resumed their sometimes caustic behavior. Or what elected politicians suggest are men behaving badly. Looking for a plainer explanation? There isn’t much Merlot served at fire department mixers.
Since the government in small town Berlin would prefer polite firefighters over experienced volunteers I’d be a little concerned about where I burn scented candles at the next dinner party. If you can’t get both politically correct and experienced firefighters then I’ll take the guys with the bad table manners.
The post Wanted: Politically Correct Firefighters appeared first on Tea Party Tribune.