"He shall from time to time give to Congress information of the State of the Union and recommend to their Consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient." (US Constitution)
Now, this isn't going to be a lesson on the US Constitution, but we expect the President of the United States to get up in front of both the House and Senate and provide his viewpoint of where the country is politically. This speech is written months in advance and the topics are carefully crafted and tested to make sure they have the best impact. Once the State of the Union is done, the President's staff starts the political spin, and members of Congress start working their way around the country, as does the President, to sell the speech. We expect this from our nation's leaders, just not the leaders of the emergency services protecting our nation's capital.
The State of the Union is provided annually. This event is well know and is conducted like clockwork. Now, we have an even fast clock to set our watches by. That is the bi-weekly State of DC speeches in which the status of the DCFD has taken over. I mentioned this briefing in an earlier posting when I spoke about takeover CEO's that are designed to come in and take over a company that is on the brink of collapse. So when we look at the DC Fire and EMS department we see an organization on the brink of collapse. If we look back at the political landscape under the Truman administration, the media played an important part in the delivery of information, but the news cycle was much shorter per day than we currently have. With the advent of an instantaneous society, the news cycle is never ending. The local news paper may have just printed their latest edition and preparing it for delivery when a new story comes about and that same agency posts it online with their twitter and facebook accounts posting the link to their article. TV News Stations will break into programming already in progress at any point in the day or night to announce breaking news stories.
The issues at the DC Fire and EMS Department are staggering and have cause concern as to the state of readiness for the department, but how much of this has been because of the medias contribution. Now, I am certainly not saying that these actions are negative. Currently Chief Ellerby has taken a lot of criticism for the actions that are going on in the nation's capital, and maybe rightfully so. The firefighters and paramedics for the department have take a no-confidence vote on the Chief and there are reports stated that for the best of the department the Chief must go. Now, I am not sure that there has been a day in the past 2 weeks that I haven't received information related to the negative state of the department. First we hear about a motorcycle officer for DCPD that was involved in a hit-in-run accident that resulted in a Prince George's CO Maryland unit coming in after noting DCFD EMS units placed themselves out of service improperly. Another involved a stroke patient transported by a fire engine because units were unavailable as well.
The State of the Union is prepared to ensure it reflects all available information, and is correct to the best of the leaderships ability. We all may not agree, but it is to reflect the current conditions. The DCFD has been quoted as providing false information to city leadership that led to the announcement that they had 7 additional units that were found to have been sold by the department sometime in the past. Then when they were found to have multiple units out of service improperly on the day of the hit and run, they now have disciplined 7 individuals for their involvements and failure to carry out agency policy.
Have we consolidated ourselves down so much that we fail to be able to adequately carry out our positions. Do we really lose track of 7 fire units, and multiple ambulance in an emergency service organization so dedicated to accountability? There are several questions that need answered by the DC Fire and EMS Department, but until they are, we will continue to receive notification of their issues. I say we need to continue to learn from mistakes such as these. Prepare and learn from our personnel accountability and make sure that we maintain our fleet in a similar manner. Make sure people have the training they need and not another "Pencil whipped" training roster saying that they have all completed a vital training when they really didn't.
Let us break out of our molds and further our pursuit of passion. Our journey to excellence in service to our community. Integrity First, Service before Self, and Excellence in all we do. While that is the motto of the Air Force, it matches the FD, Duty Honor Courage. Now, let us embrace them and continue our positive trend towards better community support.
The State of the Union is provided annually. This event is well know and is conducted like clockwork. Now, we have an even fast clock to set our watches by. That is the bi-weekly State of DC speeches in which the status of the DCFD has taken over. I mentioned this briefing in an earlier posting when I spoke about takeover CEO's that are designed to come in and take over a company that is on the brink of collapse. So when we look at the DC Fire and EMS department we see an organization on the brink of collapse. If we look back at the political landscape under the Truman administration, the media played an important part in the delivery of information, but the news cycle was much shorter per day than we currently have. With the advent of an instantaneous society, the news cycle is never ending. The local news paper may have just printed their latest edition and preparing it for delivery when a new story comes about and that same agency posts it online with their twitter and facebook accounts posting the link to their article. TV News Stations will break into programming already in progress at any point in the day or night to announce breaking news stories.
The issues at the DC Fire and EMS Department are staggering and have cause concern as to the state of readiness for the department, but how much of this has been because of the medias contribution. Now, I am certainly not saying that these actions are negative. Currently Chief Ellerby has taken a lot of criticism for the actions that are going on in the nation's capital, and maybe rightfully so. The firefighters and paramedics for the department have take a no-confidence vote on the Chief and there are reports stated that for the best of the department the Chief must go. Now, I am not sure that there has been a day in the past 2 weeks that I haven't received information related to the negative state of the department. First we hear about a motorcycle officer for DCPD that was involved in a hit-in-run accident that resulted in a Prince George's CO Maryland unit coming in after noting DCFD EMS units placed themselves out of service improperly. Another involved a stroke patient transported by a fire engine because units were unavailable as well.
The State of the Union is prepared to ensure it reflects all available information, and is correct to the best of the leaderships ability. We all may not agree, but it is to reflect the current conditions. The DCFD has been quoted as providing false information to city leadership that led to the announcement that they had 7 additional units that were found to have been sold by the department sometime in the past. Then when they were found to have multiple units out of service improperly on the day of the hit and run, they now have disciplined 7 individuals for their involvements and failure to carry out agency policy.
Have we consolidated ourselves down so much that we fail to be able to adequately carry out our positions. Do we really lose track of 7 fire units, and multiple ambulance in an emergency service organization so dedicated to accountability? There are several questions that need answered by the DC Fire and EMS Department, but until they are, we will continue to receive notification of their issues. I say we need to continue to learn from mistakes such as these. Prepare and learn from our personnel accountability and make sure that we maintain our fleet in a similar manner. Make sure people have the training they need and not another "Pencil whipped" training roster saying that they have all completed a vital training when they really didn't.
Let us break out of our molds and further our pursuit of passion. Our journey to excellence in service to our community. Integrity First, Service before Self, and Excellence in all we do. While that is the motto of the Air Force, it matches the FD, Duty Honor Courage. Now, let us embrace them and continue our positive trend towards better community support.
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