Fantasyland and Fires

Ah... Anaheim, California. Home to the MLB "Los Angeles" Angels, the NHL Ducks, and the original Disneyland. Recently the Orange County Register had an article with the headline, "Is Anaheim Fire Department Too White?" Eric Carpenter reported.

The city's Fire Department is envisioning a staff of firefighters more reflective of the cultures and ethnicities found in the city.

What does that mean? Hiring illegal aliens? Gangbangers? Taggers? (Anaheim definitely "benefitted" from the post-amnesty tsunami of illegal aliens.)

That means recruiting more women, Latinos, Asian Americans and Arab Americans, among others, to mirror Anaheim's changing demographics, fire Chief Randy Bruegman said.

I see.

Anaheim's fire force overall is 73 percent white, 18 percent Latino and 6 percent Asian, while the city's population is 52 percent Latino, 30 percent white and 14 percent Asian.

I wonder what the ethnic make-up of the city's fiscal staff is? And I don't see enough color on the Ducks team.

It's not just Anaheim:

Anaheim's department is one of six in California that participated this month in a workshop aimed at better meeting the needs of a diverse community.

Perhaps we can change the name of the city to Casa Ana?

Later this year, Anaheim will participate in a national workshop to continue leadership training and education on diversity. The city is working under the guidance of a nonprofit group, Fire 20/20.

National. So this could be happening anywhere.

A Muslim family may have religious issues with modesty. A first responder should be aware that a woman wearing a hijab who is in need of medical attention may be uncomfortable being touched by a male paramedic. A female paramedic might not be available, but the firefighter could at least be aware of the hurdle.

Great. So let the woman die, then? It's okay. There are other wives to take her place, right?

Anaheim has a large, growing Vietnamese population. Bruegman said firefighters should be aware that with many Asian cultures it would be best, when practical, to talk with the eldest family member out of respect.

So what if grandma can't hear nor understand English?

Within the article is a Q & A with the chief.

Q. How about gender equality?

A. We need to work on that more as well (Anaheim has two sworn female firefighters).

We go out into the community and we still hear people talk about "the firemen." I tell them, "We are firefighters, we haven't been firemen in at least 30 years." That's another perception we need to change early.

If they are male firefighters, they are firemen.

Q. Would you institute quotas based on gender and ethnicity?

A. We would not head down that path. But we would look at changing the recruitment pool. Right now, you go to an academy and you still see predominantly white males; that's what needs to change.

Why? As long as access is provided to all, there isn't a problem.

This is what I wrote after the article that got a lot of "likes":

Regarding Fire Department staffing. It should not matter what their last name, skin color, sex, sexual orentation, religion, or anything else is... I want THE BEST people at saving lives and protecting property. PERIOD. I don't care if the entire staff is Arabian Muslim lesbians, or if it is all white, Jewish males. Regarding how the Fire Department ACTs... we are in America. We have AMERICAN culture. People who COME HERE do so voluntarily and should recognize that they live in AMERICA and we're not going to cater to all of their cultural sensitivities. If they liked that other culture so much, they can always go back to it.

The last thing we want to do is bring down the standard to meet a quota. When a firefighter is on the back of a fire truck, they need to be equally trained and capable. Firefighters wouldn't stand for anything less. Nor would the public.

Glad to see the chief said that. But as far as recruitment - if someone doesn't have the guts to apply despite the fact that they'd be in the skin color or sex minority in the department, they don't have the guts to be firefighters. Firefighters should be people who WANTED to be firefighters, who don't let barriers stand in their way. I understand wanting to better deal with "cultural sensitivities", but only in so far as it aids in saving lives and protecting property, goals which should never be compromised for the sake of feel-good political correctness. For years, the police department spokseman was Rick Martinez. I didn't even think about his ethnic background until just now. Why? It didn't matter. He was darn good at what he did. That's what mattered.