This past week’s news brought us a tale of two cities of sorts, at least as it relates to fire service leadership.
In one area, you had fire service leaders confronted with a situation where the right thing to do was hard and they did it anyway. And in another area, you had a fire chief confronted with a situation where the right thing to do was easy and he didn’t do it.
The first story comes out of FDNY where a veteran and medic with a good track record applied to become a firefighter. There was one catch: he’d made a series of gay-porn movies prior to applying to FDNY.
The easy thing for FDNY to do would have been to move on to another candidate with less perceived baggage — there are certainly no shortage of candidates looking to land a job with FDNY.
To the candidate’s credit, he disclosed his acting career in the interview, and to FDNY’s credit they didn’t care. He had the skills they wanted, they put him through the academy, he graduated top 10 in his class and they hired him.
It doesn’t take much imagination to see how anti-gay sentiments, and it makes no difference if he’s really gay or perceived to be gay, in a male-dominated industry could have made it very difficult for him to get hired.
The other story comes out of Bullitt County, Ky. where the fire chief responded to a minor vehicle crash. The white chief is captured on a police officer’s dash cam going above and beyond the call to help the white motorist while offering no assistance to the black family involved in the wreck.
He’s also heard laughing and saying that, “We ain’t taking no n-----s here.”
The right thing to do here is easy: help both parties — regardless of race.
Had the African-American family been injured or trapped, the chief may well have reacted in a completely opposite way — we don’t know. What we do know is what we saw, and even in the limited context available, it is highly unprofessional and simply wrong.
One of the encouraging signs in this was the reaction from the firefighting community to both stories. Yes, looking at social media posts is by no means an accurate measure of opinion, but it does reflect patterns.
Those who responded came out strongly against the Ky. fire chief’s behavior. And, they came out equally as strong in support of FDNY’s decision and its new firefighters — in fact, many were honked off at me for even running the story.
As we watch protesters fill the streets this week over what they see as systemic discrimination, it is refreshing to see the fire service move toward inclusion. The age of acceptance and tolerance may not be upon us firefighters, but it is coming.
My first hope is that those in power in the fire service who cling to narrow-minded, hateful prejudices will open their minds to tolerance and understanding — and ultimately fair treatment. Failing that, my hope is that they step aside for those who can.
