A Good Sign, the Maltese Cross

摘要

I recently read an article that credited a fire chief with a very specific quote. Then I read somewhere else that the quote had been attributed to another chief. Regardless, it still is a very good quote. When we boil it all down, it is the usefulness of the quote that matters, not who said it first. In the fire service, useful things-worthwhile things-do not need any push to get us to use them. Given an opportunity, firefighters will steal anything useful, improve it, and make it their own. I don't think the guy who started "do unto others" ever got any gold for coming up with the golden rule, but I know he would be happy that we get it. The opposite is true of bad ideas: You know an idea is a "dog" when they have to threaten to take away your birthday if you don't follow it or refuse to do it. Generally, these ideas have some ulterior motive like money, or a controlling bully or bully-type organization owns them. These bad, useless ideas are generally followed in name only or on paper but are not accepted in practice. Thankfully, common sense usually wins out and, over time, the bad ideas just quietly go away.