There is nothing worse than a wasted opportunity. From June 17-23, we are going to once again stand down for safety-a very righteous cause, and I support this effort completely. Do not ignore our opportunity to change what we can and should change. The world is moving ahead at a hundred miles an hour, and we must keep revisiting our policies and procedures to match the ever-changing threats we face. Tactics must change to meet new challenges. Technology, gear, tools, and equipment and how we apply them will change how we respond, react, and resolve our incidents. We have always been the masters of this process; the fire service has always been able to modify its behavior to meet our citizens’ needs.
Many say we are modifying or changing our culture. They are right; we are. But we need to understand that there are four elements of culture. These four elements have been passed on from generation to generation of firefighters by learning alone. They are our values, our institutions, our artifacts, and our norms. From a firefighter’s perspective, the word “culture” refers to our work and everything associated with our work.
Our values comprise ideas about what is important to firefighters. They guide the rest of our culture; they are the key to all we are. Our institutions are our rank structures, our response methods. Our artifacts are our helmets, our pike poles, and our apparatus. Norms are expectations of behavior, expectations we all share of how firefighters will or should behave in various situations. When we stand down this month, we are focusing our efforts on how we expect firefighters to behave. The behavior, to be acceptable to us, must reflect our values.
But who we are; where we came from; and, most importantly, the values we uphold-these are eternal. These values are the bedrock at our cultural core. They are our anchor and the source of our strength as firefighters. We must never confuse our very important self-examination and behavioral modifications so they are perceived as changes in our time-honored traditional values. To make our operational stand-downs successful, we must make sure they realign our actions with our values. We must put our values first in every aspect of our work we choose to examine.
We are working together this month to help all firefighters identify where some of their actions may be out of alignment with their values. By realigning behavior with values, we can change our behavior effortlessly; our inherited, unfaltering cultural values have defined throughout our history what is desirable in a firefighter.
I hear good firefighters say, “We have to change.” That is normal, expected, and welcomed. All our systems require recalibration, but only at the operative or normative levels. Firefighters need not feel guilty about the heroic sacrifices made by some of the most phenomenal men and women who have ever walked the face of this earth.
Firefighters need never feel guilty about being firefighters. Some might say we should never lose a firefighter. I wish this were possible, but many great firefighters have heroically made the ultimate sacrifice when they met the unexpected or refused to accept the loss of another in the performance of their duties. Our pride of our history of selflessness, bravery, and honor permeates our cultural values.
Our values reflect the Roman vigils or “watchmen.” The Latin word vigil means “to watch or to be vigilant, watchful and alert, especially to danger or to something that is wrong.” Our motto, “Semper Vigilante,” ever watchful, describes how we feel about our communities and our mission.
I am proud of where we have been, what we have done, and how we have gotten it done. I make no excuses, and I will never apologize for our past. I will never allow any disrespect to be shown to our values and our forefathers. If we need to tighten up some individual behaviors, some normative stuff, I am right there with you. This June, let’s all begin by remembering carelessness is not part of our culture, recklessness is not part of our culture, disrespect is not part of our culture, and jeopardizing our safety or the safety of others is completely outside our cultural values.
When we stand down for operational retooling this June, we should also stand up with pride, reaffirming our values and the ways in which they define our culture. Firefighters must always respect these values and live by them. New standards, new codes, new rules, and improved supervision will change firefighters’ behaviors. However, the honor and bravery of firefighters defined in these values that have guided our culture so well need to be a source of pride and inspiration.
Eliminating all the risks in firefighting is impossible. Doing brave and heroic things involves risks. We will always be putting others’ welfare ahead of our own. It is who we are, and bad things will happen-very bad things. But because we are firefighters, we accept the risks because the rewards of our work are so great. We accept the risks because we have decided to live our values.
We are America’s firefighters, our motto is “Semper Vigilante”-first for our charges, our citizens, and then ourselves. Every firefighter understands there are things we cannot change, but we understand there are things we can and will change. Moreover, I know you know the difference; I know you will protect our values. I know you will always remember they came first.
