05/08/02  Comments from a Dallas Firefighter

I wish I could say the May 4^th defeat of the Pay Referendum surprised me. It did not. 

Oh, sure, there were moments in fantasyland during the last few days of the campaign when I allowed rumors of positive polls and encouraging statements from citizens to give me hope.  Even on election day when voters at the North Dallas precinct where I worked told me over and over that they had voted to make our pay competitive, I let myself believe that we just might pull it off.

For the most part, after the Dallas Citizen?s Council and the Greater Dallas Chamber of Commerce hired political consultant Rob Allyn and placed hundreds of thousands of dollars at his disposal, I felt we were out of our league. 

As Dallas Firefighters Association (DFFA) President Mike Beuhler told the press after it was clear that we were defeated, 

The fact that we were right and they were wrong had little to do with the outcome. It was a case of David and Goliath and David lost.

Nor was I shocked that the mayor and city council turned against us.  We were asking for a proactive solution to a problem that won?t be obvious for several more years when bottom-of-the-barrel recruits will begin to negatively effect performance.  

Dallas has never been proactive about anything.  Few local politicians seek office with the long-term interests of the city in mind.  Rather, they bring personal ambitions and agendas that they have no intention of sacrificing in order to fix problems that won?t be evident until years after they leave office. If this were not true, the Pay Disparity Lawsuit would have been settled years ago.

What did surprise me was the margin by which we lost. I thought that when the citizens were asked to trust the word of their police officers and firefighters over the rhetoric of spin doctors and politicians more of them would have sided with us.

Opposition from mayors and council members is something we have come to expect.  Quality public safety concerns them only when they don?t have it.  When Dallas was dubbed "the murder capitol of the United States" they threw huge amounts of money at the Police Department trying to quickly solve a problem that was years in the making.  

The course set on May 4th virtually guarantees that our "World-Class City" will revisit those days of third-world-class public safety.  This may happen sooner rather than later as the new tougher TDH paramedic curriculum combines with marginal candidates to produce previously unimaginable failure rates.

Until then, we still have to do our jobs. 

From the first day we came to work, each of us has had to accept the possibility that we may be called upon to sacrifice everything for someone we don?t know.  We may even be asked to make that sacrifice for one of the 72% whose own actions have placed themselves and us closer to harm?s way. Granted, it would be much easier to do if we could still believe they were on our side.

Just remember the Knights of Malta who were responsible for the deepest roots of fire service tradition. They braved the Saracen flames not for an ungrateful public or disinterested leaders but for duty, honor and the love of their comrades. A more recent example? 

Consider the FDNY captain watching the World Trade Center burn from the seat of his ladder truck as it crossed the Brooklyn Bridge for the last time.  According to the only firefighter to survive, he turned to his crew and said "We?re gonna die today, boys, but we?re gonna do our jobs." What they did that day they did for pride, honor and for each other.

We tried to do what was best for Dallas and the people we are sworn to serve. We have cause to be disappointed but we have no reason to be ashamed.

Mike Watson, Dallas firefighter