Pride

In a recent fire company meeting, a discussion was held regarding wearing full regulation dress uniforms, debate was held on whether or not to wear non-regulation uniforms to parades. The long and short of it ended up being that we will continue the long-standing tradition of wearing our regulation uniforms to parades. But what stood out in my mind during the debate was when someone brought up in defense that we should continue to wear them because even though they are uncomfortably warm during parades, “pride” dictates that we should wear them. Hmmm…I thought pride? That’s a term I don’t hear kicked around a lot at the fire station. What do we show pride in? When we wash the fire apparatus? Or rolling hose? Or perhaps at election time? After much thought and deliberation I found that I can’t really find much of what I thought was pride. So I looked it up in the Websters on-line dictionary and found this:

pride Pronunciation: \prīd\ Function:noun Etymology: Middle English, from Old English prȳde, from prūd proud — more at proud Date: before 12th century
1: the quality or state of being proud: as a: inordinate self-esteem : conceit b: a reasonable or justifiable self-respect c: delight or elation arising from some act, possession, or relationship 2: proud or disdainful behavior or treatment : disdain3 a: ostentatious display b: highest pitch : prime4: a source of pride : the best in a group or class5: a company of lions6: a showy or impressive group

This gave me a whole range of definitions but I figured it would be better used if I was able to put it into something simpler to read for all the Brothers and Sisters at the fire house; so here’s my definition of “pride” and how it relates to the fire service:
Pride is the feeling you get when you are at a fire scene and you’ve made a good stop; Pride is when you’re fire training has proven your confidence and ability to perform your duties as professionals; Pride is watching the backs of your Brother and Sister firefighters whether it be at a fire scene or a social function; Pride is honoring a deceased firefighter after he or she has answered their final alarm; Pride is following the orders of an officer whether you agree or not; Pride is the care you show when you use the fireman’s room for relaxing and entertainment and treat it as you would your own home; Pride is how you deal with the public on the fire ground; Pride is the respect of a fire fighters family when in their presence; Pride is the accountability for all your actions in life; Pride is getting out of bed at 3am to extinguish a small pile of burning leaves or help at a rescue call involving lifting an elderly person back onto their bed or chair; Pride is the ability to maintain your professionalism and dignity no matter what the situation whether in public or private; Pride is allowing someone to speak freely without holding a pique or grudge against them because of their position on a particular matter that you may or may not agree with; Pride is performing at least one good deed for someone per day no matter how trivial; Pride is comforting the parents or loved ones of someone who’s been in a auto accident or medical incident as opposed to looking the other way; Pride is remembering that we are all in this together and we are one band of Brothers & Sisters. If we claim we have pride we just can’t pick or choose from what we like, it must be all inclusive. How many of these can you honestly say you embrace??