You’ve all seen the reports, the press coverage, the YouTube videos, the blog posts. The American flag is under attack. Anti-American fire chiefs are taking away the rights of patriotic hero firefighters who love their country. Welcome to the police state. It’s all about race. REVOLUTION!

Oh, please.

Tear yourself away from the carnival and let me redirect your attention for just a moment as I recall an interesting experience. Bear with me here.

When our department first began technical rescue training way back when, we practiced rappelling down the side of our station in full PPE and on air. We loved it. It was a riot. Everyone went over the side.

Then, it happened.

I had just made the move over the side when I managed to tangle up my pack with my ropes. I ended up inverted. Oh, the laughter from the clowns down below.

Wait, it gets better.

As I’m hanging there upside down like a piñata, the station draws a call for an explosion and fire. Clowns turn to Olympic sprinters as everyone wigs out and bolts for their spot on the equipment leaving only me and the instructor on the safety line up top.

So I’m swaying in the breeze listening to the cacophony of sirens headed for a most-excellent call of which I should be a part, I had a moment to think to myself. “How did I get in this situation at this moment of my life? What actions had I taken to be where I am here and now?”

My point here is we all need to exercise the skill of stepping back and looking at exactly how we arrived here at the situation at hand. I dubbed it The Pinata Reflection. Only with this type of honest reflection can we expect to change our reactions and behaviors. Even as the carnival ramps up into high gear, methinks there is a lot of reflectin’ going on in Chester, PA.

Remember: this nightmare didn’t start with a ‘flag on a locker.’ Based only on what we’re hearing from the firefighters, one could easily surmise the genesis came from some chucklehead who decided to display a racially charged picture on a locker for all to see. Purty funny, huh? That guy needs to reflect on his culpability in birthing this #&$%storm and step up to claim ownership of his responsibility here. Nice job there, brother.

Of course then, management had the responsibility to address that situation quickly and decisively. But I hope that the administration is reflecting on the inflexibility of the shotgun approach they chose to take. One guy screws up and a blanket policy goes into effect.

We’ve all seen it before- it’s a managerial shortcut to a solution for a relatively benign molehill involving one or two guys, but everyone gets a taste of the punishment. It’s a path that leaves the door open for numerous other issues to take foot. And it left the administration locked into a position that offered no flexibility, and flexibility would have worked marvelously here.

To be fair, we don’t know the all the specifics of how this went down. We don’t know what other factors (histories, attitudes, need to show power) played into the decisions of everyone including the commissioner, the chief, suspended firefighter James Krapf, and the chucklehead. In fact, we haven’t heard much at all from the administration on their side of the story. May not be a bad idea for them to continue to follow that tactic after what happened in D.C. last week… (see my post on using the Head Rule).

When I heard of the flap, I knew I should head over to firehousezen.com. You can always find a superb post on leadership by Mick Mayers, who again nailed this one on the head. Check it out and see if you don’t agree with the alternative approaches he offers. My, how things could have been different.

Finally, we also own part of this, folks. Too many of us have become so eager to be offended. Tolerance has taken a backseat to emotional outbursts unencumbered by the thought process. No need to be civil when you can be loud.

Of course we love our country.

Of course we adore the flag.

Of course we are patriotic.

Duh!

We’ve become so used to having the spin-meisters do the thinking for us. It’s so much easier to be told what to think and to follow the herd than it is to develop our own views and stand up for them. Stoking the fire with patriotic gasoline, we’re being told this is all about a fire chief denouncing the patriotism of a firefighter.

Bull-ticky.

It’s about a simple issue resulting in a chain of events that should never have led to this: the Chester Fire Department swaying like the proverbial piñata- just waiting to be whacked as the entire world looks on..