College professor questions ‘the myth of the heroic fireman’
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Jeffrey Polet is a professor at Hope College in Holland, Michigan who writes for Bridge, a publication of the Center for Michigan, a “think-and-do” tank. Polet’s February 28 column is about the “myth of the heroic fireman” and how he believes progress can’t be made on state and municipal budgets without considering fire and police protection.
The professor makes the case this myth sways budget and voting decisions in a way that is out of proportion with reality. Polet’s thinking is a reminder of what the fire service has been and will be up against in budget battles. I encourage you to read his entire column, but here are a few excerpts:
I can think of no group in our society more affirmatively mythologized than firemen. They are lauded as heroes, their sacrifices valorized, and their sites of failure taken as sacred ground.
The public has acquiesced largely because it accepts the myths. Take, for example, the widespread use of the misnomer “first responders.” Events such as the Boston Marathon bombing and the World Trade Center attack demonstrate that the police and fire personnel are typically the last persons on the scene. Most of the hard work is done by those already there. If your house is on fire, you best get yourself and your family out. The main function of firemen (and it’s a valuable one) is to contain fires, not to prevent or end them.
Long celebrated in movies, TV and the news media, the myth of the heroic fireman became even more deeply entrenched in public consciousness after the events of 9/11.
The people who were saved in the towers were almost exclusively saved by people in the towers.
