Chief Bobby Halton, editor in chief Fire Engineering/FDIC International education director, bolstered the energy and passion of the audience at this morning’s Opening Session with his “Welcome” address, providing the surge in their spirit of renewal and dedication that attendees have come to expect from FDIC.
Halton assured the firefighers and other first responders that, in contrast to many civilian settings in today’s society, “they would never feel uncomfortable or out of step among their fellow firefighters, policemen, and warfighters, where words like ‘duty,’ ‘honor,’ ‘God,’ ‘service,’ and ‘country’ need no explanation or apology.”
Approaching the theme of “obligation,” Halton first tweaked the answer to a question posed to many firefighters: Why did you want to be a firefighter? The most authentic answer, he said, is simply, “Because I just like to help people.” But, Halton said, “The problem is, that is not true. We don’t like to help people. Firefighters MUST help people. They are compelled to help people …. Firefighters cannot NOT help people. They accept that they are obligated to help people.”
However, Halton noted: “That sense of obligation now is being misunderstood and confused. We hear it online, in after-action reports, and elsewhere. [It is] vilified especially in hindsight as ‘a way of being’ or acting that is regressive, antiquated, and ignorant. This is understandable,” he said, “given the western society’s cultural drift into homo deism, absolutism, and elitism.” Some of the attitudes of a social mindset confident of its moral and intellectual superiority to all who came before are creeping into the fire service, Halton said. “Our beloved fire service, as is our national cultural identity, is under the same assaults, under the same ridicule, under the same attacks. From this lofty perch, our detractors see all of our traditions, proven and vetted tactical profiles, cultural norms, historical legends, our relentless innovation and creativity by default as flawed, corrupt, and deficient.
“Our detractors and the polite people who lack skin in the game have no concept of our sense of obligation to our sacred covenant with our fellow citizens, and they confuse it with our social contract with our subscribed customers. Our critics are convinced they are doing good by protecting us from our vintage selves, enlightening us less informed, and saving us from our outdated morals. They are confusing our sacred covenant with our social contract.”
“True firefighters are grateful and free,” said Halton. “We are free to use the insights gained from research and to embed them in proven tactics. We are grateful for the increasing knowledge of fire behavior, toxicity, and reactivity. True firefighters embrace all this knowledge. We use it to honor the social contract between us and the customers we serve. We use it to modify our tactics, improve procedures, and grow as craftspeople. We do this enthusiastically while being aware that doing so does not interfere with something more sacred--our obligation to honor our sacred covenant. Firefighters have first a covenant, a sacred obligation. A primary obligation between them and their fellow citizens. They have second, a contract, a fiduciary obligation, a secondary obligation between them and their customers.
There is a difference between a customer and a provider in a social contract and a citizen to a citizen in a sacred covenant.
“Firefighters enter a sacred covenant first; the social contract is second,” Halton related. Although the two are often confused, they are quite different. He explained: A contract involves an exchange, such as your plumber for his services. A covenant, on the other hand is more like a marriage. It is sacred and respects the dignity and integrity of others in a bond of loyalty and trust. A covenant isn’t about me, my interests, or my identity. Society and c