Brotherhood fighting for a comeback!

I've been thinking a lot lately about what a few members of the Department have been discussing lately about trying to bring the brotherhood back into the Department... It's not completely gone, three of the four stations work together and now even a few members of the fourth are realizing that being number one isn't at a single location; it's about being one unified Department. It's been a long time since this Department was able to work together harmoniously off a fire scene and I'm loving the direction we are going right now, so my question is "How do you bring brotherhood back into a Department after it's been gone for so many years?"

I read an article I found on firehouse.com recently that I would love to share with you especially two of the paragraphs. The title of the article is called "What is our Brotherhood?" and it is written by Dr. Harry R. Carter who is an amazing staff writer for firehouse.com

He wrote about brotherhood: "You cannot turn it on and off, or share with some folks and not others. You are either a part of the Brotherhood, or an imposter dressing in firefighting garb. The all-encompassing nature of Brotherhood is one aspect of being a part of the fire service that seems to be increasingly overlooked by the members of our service.

Trust me when I say that this is a battle and it is not always a young against the old sort of conflict. It is about a lack of respect for the proud traditions that have carried us this far. It is about a respect for people, past and present, living and dead. Any time that I witness or experience some place where there is an absence of respect, I feel that I am experiencing an environment totally devoid of any spirit of Brotherhood."

My favorite part of this is the second paragraph where he writes that the lack of brotherhood is from a lack of respect for people, past and present, living and dead; and how it's also about a lack of tradition. This is so true in our Department and I pray that it changes soon and people see that tradition needs to continue the way it currently has and learn how to work together as a Department and come up with ideas the whole Department is on board with. Not just change things because one small group feels it's time for change, but because the whole Department feels it's time for change. We all are adults working to do the same job in the same community and it's important for us to work together as a brotherhood on and off the fire scene; to better serve the community and ourselves. Brotherhood is a tradition that is lost and is fighting it's way back into our Department.