Lord, give me the heart of a fireman…….
The place could be anywhere across the USA in
thousands of small rural communities.
The names of the people are not well known.
They are just ordinary folks who get up and go to work every
day, some to more than one job and all who volunteer for one or more
community activities.
They are called volunteer firemen, or in many cases, fire and rescue
personnel. I think our
Creator calls them special.
I know that I do!
It was 24 degrees when I recently visited one such
group. It was the night
of their weekly meeting.
All were there except one younger member who was in training,
on his own time, with no pay, to learn how to be a better volunteer
fire and rescue worker.
There were a lot of the “over fifty” crowd and perhaps some beyond
that. 24 degrees is
pretty cold for Alabama, but every member was ready to serve their
community night or day as duty called.
I had not been to this department for over eight
years, yet several members recalled my last visit, and the Chief
still had my business card.
These guys place their values in people, not things!
Many are employed in the manufactured housing industry, an
industry that is suffering greatly from the deeds of financial
manipulators and greedy politicians whose acts have resulted in loss
of jobs, extended layoffs, and an average loss in their retirement
funds of over 40%. Yet,
even though there was a brief discussion on the subject, not a
single member blamed their woes on someone else, applied for
welfare, or even complained.
All they wanted was the opportunity to continue working to
support their family and community.
I think our American car makers and government leaders could
use a little guidance from these folks.
Like all meetings of this type, there is an agenda
that includes a review of old business.
One of the topics of the evening involved a medical response
to a member of the community.
It seems the response time was a little longer than usual.
There were no excuses.
Some explanations were reviewed to determine what was wrong
that could be corrected without focusing on the blame or excuse
game. A two point plan
evolved. The first was
to extend a sincere apology to the person with the medical problem
and second, to initiate a plan and a purpose to never let such a
thing happen again.
They didn’t even require a board meeting.
They simply identified the problem and took the necessary
action.
For what it’s worth, many of the members were at a
local high school basketball game the night that the previous
incident occurred.
Support of school programs and participation in church activities is
just a small part in the life of volunteer fire and rescue
personnel. These are
not the captains of industry and you’ll probably never see their
names in the media, but I think I know one place where you’ll see
their names. It’s
called the Book of Life and it is maintained by the big Scorekeeper
in the sky. That makes
at least two of us that appreciate what you do!
Lastly, for all you whimpering atheistic left wing
rabble rousers, I have only one thing to say to you and all your
kind……
Merry
Christmas!
Burch H.
Falkner
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