By John Burtis
Monday, May 7, 2007
As a third generation firefighter, I have always been a booster of the fire service. But times have changed here in my New Hampshire town, and in company with like minded citizens, I am growing increasingly concerned about the behavior of our local firefighters.
One of my first memories concern the Port Dickinson, NY, fire station, visiting my father there, watching the alarm come in, seeing the boyos pulling on their boots, coats, and helmets, and running for the 1953 American LaFrance as it pulled out and headed south on Chenango Street.
Standing on those steps at two years old, I can clearly remember the old man's words as he headed for the pumper, "Stay right here, we'll be back soon." And I didn't dare leave the steps until the rig returned and backed into the stall amid a gust of exhaust smoke and the ricochets of flashing red lights on the glass. I vowed that someday I'd be a member of this august bunch of men.
But times, at least locally, have changed since 9/11. A number of our town firefighters seem to think that they are untouchable, that their activities cannot be questioned, and that, should an elected representative, or anyone at all, raise any valid concern or inquire about their behavior as the result of a constituent's question, or form anyone, the malcontent must be quashed.
Last fall, one of my seven town councillors, grew concerned about the fire department's activities because of a call from a constituent. They reported that the on duty tower ladder was taken to a firefighter's wedding, where it was used as a prop for the newly wedded. It was alleged that they were taken for rides in the bucket, thus taking it out of service, with the crew on the town's clock, for some time.
And the councilor was quickly subjected to a vicious, pointed, and personally destructive blog attack at a national fire service magazine, the preferred national periodical for many in the fire service.
Today there is an excellent and current article concerning the deleterious activities involved in web attacks on the integrity and reputation of individuals.
"Web can ruin reputation with stroke of the key," by Anna Badkhen of the San Francisco Chronicle illustrates the effects of these web attacks quite clearly.
The author is to be praised for bringing these scurrilous activities, which happen all too often, to the readers of a major US newspaper. Sadly, I never thought I'd use an article like it to discuss activities associated with firefighters.
Our councillor in question began to realize that something was amiss when she began to receive highly disturbing e-mails, of a pointed and personal nature, from firefighters from around the country and as far away as Colorado, questioning her concerns about the duty ladder company. And though she became somewhat frightened by their vicious personal content, she was determined that she would not be browbeaten, dispirited, nor cave in as a result of this prolonged and intensive attack.
Luckily, a few computer savvy citizens were able to identify the source, but before they could even enter the site, the blog had been removed at the behest of someone at one of our major statewide newspapers, according to one of the individuals who tried to track down the culprits, further indicating a clear link to the happenings here in town.
But when you look at this activity – the raising of an issue concerning local fire protection and the prompt personal attack coordinated on a firefighter's blog at a respected magazine – you can only surmise that this attack was specifically designed to both intimidate the town councillor and to let any other citizen, who might also question the actions of our fire department, know that they, too, would endure a similar immediate attack for raising the same questions.
After taking her concerns about the blog attack to our town administration, it became quite clear that nothing was going to be done about these derisive activities, although the fire chief finally paid some $28.00 for the time the ladder was out of service with its driver.
However, the immediate withdrawal of the contents of the blog from the web indicated the cowardliness of the posting agent, just as it pointed to the hollowness of the pointed denunciations of the councillor when both were called into question.
Although good managerial practices dictate that a prompt investigation be completed as a result of these allegations, it was not done. And the councillor, in a move towards the very conciliation she was not offered on the damaging blog or by the town's leadership, withdrew her request to check the town's servers for evidence of this illicit attack because of its expense and the time involved.
Here we are today, being served by a fire department whose reputation remains somewhat tarnished, just as we remain governed by individuals, though by a smaller margin than in the past, who would rather not investigate an incident which clearly indicates that undue pressure and forced duress were visited upon an elected councillor for merely doing her job by speaking up for a member of her neighborhood. And all this takes place in relatively small town New Hampshire, where all opinions are to be given their fair public hearing without the politics of personal destruction.
The dew, thanks to the contentious activities of our local boys in blue, is decidedly off the pumpkins. I'm saddened for it all because the idols of yesterday have become all too human and frail today. And there is a lack of joy here in Mudville.
The question of personal freedom on the web will arise and be countered with whether it can be extended to vicious anonymous web attacks designed to besmirch people's character and to destroy their family members.
Sadly, to prevent a repeat of the activities which prompted the article, and to prevent them being visited upon anyone here again, I have had to purposefully leave out my town's name, the name of the councillor, that of our town's former and current administrator's, and the fire chief's, while writing this piece. I wish I didn't have to.
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