Inside EMS Podcast: Brotherhood, Or Lack Thereof

In this week’s episode of Inside EMS, co-host Chris Cebollero and I discuss the suicide of Fairfax, VA firefighter/paramedic Nicole Mittendorf, and how EMS and the fire service talk a good game about the public safety brotherhood, but many systems do a poor job of practicing it.

Give us a listen, and share with us your thoughts.

As I said in the podcast, I’m a mid-forties white, heterosexual Southern redneck. I cannot pretend to understand the perspective of women, gays, blacks, Hispanics, Asians, transgenders, or for that matter, liberals.

But my parents did their best to teach me to be a good person, and to respect others. I don’t need to understand them to show them courtesy and respect, as fellow human beings.

And if you are practicing bullying, hazing, bigotry and hatred toward someone else in our profession just because they are perceived as “different,” YOU ARE NOT MY BROTHER.