Chip's Blog

OK, NOW I'm p*ssed!!!  They've finally done it.  I have to clean half drank coffee off my dashboard and my windshield.  Here I am, sitting at the mailbox as I am every morning at 7:00 AM, retrieving the mail from the day before.  Nothing of consequence...usual junk mail.  I admit it, my only friends are direct marketers...I get love letters from banks.  If credit card offers were lovers, I'd be Bill Clinton.  "Aaahhh did not have sex with that financial institution!"

Now, I've been acutely aware for a week or so that there is a "disconnect" between what I hear on the news, and what I experience in real life.  Everyone on TV is telling me there is a credit crunch.  Because of the subprime mortgage issue, credit money has dried up.  Yet I can't go to my mailbox without an offer for a credit card or a loan.  Now, I'm here to tell you that, although Okie Dokie and I are comfortable, we are anything but the "Gates Family".  (In fact, our house would be more likely called the "Bates Motel" than the "Gates Motel", but that is a story for a Halloween blog!!).  SO...what do I believe?  TV or my mailbox?

So, this morning I have the usual...Chase wants to give me a credit card...I can transfer my balances with no interest for 6 months...I'll pass.  we don't have balances.  At my age, I can barely keep my balance so I don't need a bank  to take it!!!

Then there is CountryWide (remember them...the FIRST to get in trouble?) who wants to re-mortgage my home.  No thanks...I'll stick with doing "it" with my wife.  I'm good...

Then....THEN....I open this envelope from "Third Financial".  It's an offer for a freakin' sub-prime second mortgage.  Holy WeeWee, Batman...That ain't "bank sex"....these guys are out to rape a whole new group of citizens!!!!  Thanks but no thanks...

So...when I get home...out comes the Armor-All...I have coffee to clean up....

Ok folks…here comes the Bailout Plan from the blog couple.  Designed by the old guy with the grey beard, questioned and tweaked by the pretty woman.  Developed over coffee in the living room of the daughter of an Air Force Master Sergeant and the son of a chicken farmer.  Simple roots/simple plan.

Let’s just forget about the corporations.  Our damned government has no business supporting failed businesses.  That’s why Congress was overwhelmed with calls yesterday that shot down the plan.  No one wants to give money to companies that have given $240 million packages to CEO’s like Franklin Raines.

First, what is the big economic problem created if we do nothing?  People who own stock in those companies lose what the have?  News flash everyone, those companies have already tanked.  Folks have already lost their money.  Sorry, but if you buy stock in dumbassed companies, you’ll lose your shirt.  The stock market will tank?  News flash everyone, it already has.  So what?  It’ll go up, even if we do nothing.

Really there are only two problems I can see:

1. Corporate execs will lose their high paying jobs.  Ummm…they deserve to!!!
2. Some amount of foreclosed property, and some amount of non-foreclosed property goes into legal limbo.

Let’s look at #2.  What happens to the mortgages of the people who owe money to AIG, or Fannie Mae, or Freddie Mac or whomever?  When these corporation go “BLEEP-up”, who owns the mortgages?  No one?  Now, I’m well aware that I really don’t own my home.  Countrywide Homeloans owns most of m home.  I won’t own it completely until Countrywide discharges my mortgage.  If Countrywide goes out of business, they don’t exist to discharge my mortgage, therefore I can never legally own it!!  Guess what?  I can never legally sell it either!!!  So one of the ramification of this financial crisis is that a large percentage of our homeowners, even the ones paying, will lose the ability to own what they already think they own!!!

Solution:

Don’t bail out the corporations.  Create a government agency.  Pass legislation that assumes the mortgages of any bank/lending institution that goes out of business.  Do not give a dime to the bank, take the mortgage, lock stock and barrel.  If the loan is in good shape, give the homeowner a new address, and a new envelope.  Allow him/her to pay his mortgage like he always has.  If the mortgage is in foreclosure proceedings, stop them.  Offer a re-written mortgage at a reduced interest rate amortized over 50 years   Make it affordable, yet still financially attractive t the taxpayers.  If they default on that, throw their asses out and sell it/re-mortgage it to another deserving hard working low income person (read well…hard working).  One time mortgages/one time houses/one time program.

The Proceeds:

1. Invest 33% of the proceeds in the Social Security Trust Fund.  Reward the hardworking people who made this country great, and already paid their mortgages.  2.  Invest 33% in direct pay down of national debt, especially to China.  3.  Use 33% to “Fair Up” the plan (see next section).

“Fairing Up” the Plan:

At face value, this plan rewards the folks who don’t pay their bills at the expense of those who do.  As my wife so cogently pointed out-UNFAIR.  Use 33% of the proceeds to give mortgage tax deductions to the people who are paying their normal mortgages.  Give NO tax deductions to those who are getting special “bail out mortgages”.

Comments?

As some of you may remember, my most consistent incarnation in real life has been in the mental health profession.  In my practice, I get a few different types of people who are referred out of groups in the community.  I get a bunch of alcoholics, because I am a recovering one.  I get a few veterans too.

Recently, I got an emergency call from the Clinic Director asking me if I could find time to see a gentleman who was presenting in what seemed to be an emergency situation.  The Director was concerned because 1.  He said he was a veteran and 2.  He was saying he had been poisoned by Saddam Hussien.  He said, "Chip, this one's right up your alley."  (For the record, the Clinic Director had, in one of HIS previous incarnations, a career in the Air Force.)

I "made time" and saw him the next day.  It was not the easiest interview I'd ever done.  This man did not give informatin freely and evaded a number of my questions.  Everyone else had said he was psychotic (delusion of being poisoned by Saddam) and may have suffered for PTSD if his service claims were even close to valid.  Everyone was skeptical of what he told them about his "TS clearance"  (Top Secret). As the interview went on, it became clearer and clearer to me that he was, in fact, giving valid information.  The more I probed the more details slipped out that would validate his claims, not as boastful statements, but as simple truisms from a man who was one of the "Quiet Professionals" who so valiantly serve us.  It was also clear that the evasions he was doing with me were simply the professional residue of having to keep secrets.  He was proud of the fact that he still did keep those secrets. As he grew to trust me as a person who understood, he gave more information (yet politely steering the conversation away from sensitive areas) and spoke with pride for his service, and gratitude that he could still fly around the country free to visit his former comrades in arms.  But his career had ended in Stuttgart in a way he was deeply saddened about.

The more he spoke, the less "psychotic" his words sounded.  He did not speak of any traumatic events that had unduly upset him.  He did suffer from significant medical issues, including deep pain in his leg, hip and elbow he attributed to the huge number of parachute jumps he'd made during his career (not uncommon to have guys like him with service like his have leg problems from "jumps".  The elbow WAS a bit of an anomaly...)  He reported huge memory lapses that troubled him deeply.  He'd become depressed and despondent because he was decaying physically and mentally.  That had been the grist of his issues that surfaced in Stuttgart.

I conferred with another friend who had experience with Gulf War vets.  This just didn't add up for me.  Something was amiss.  Every hair was standing up on the back of my neck, and I couldn't find a comb....

I heard these words: Gulf War Syndrome.  My friend spoke of concerns that it may even have been caused by the innoculations given to soldiers prior to deployment. Many theories exist, including oil well fires, nerve agents and biological weapons used by Saddam.  The causes are unclear, but the symptms are pervasive.  I'm going to give you a hyperlink to go to Wikipedia on this one.  It actually contains valid empirical data from studies done:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_War_syndrome

Here's a quickie:

Excess prevalence of general symptoms:[7]

Symptom   U.S.   UK   Australia   Denmark   Fatigue 23% 23% 10% 16% Headache 17% 18% 7% 13% Memory problems 32% 28% 12% 23% Muscle/joint pain 18% 17% 5% <2% Diarrhea 16% 9% 13% Dyspepsia/indigestion 12% 5% 9% Neurological problems 16% 8% 12% Terminal tumors 33% 9%

Here's another fact:  the rate of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) amoungst Gulf War Veterans is significanly less than any previous war running between 2 and 6 %.

Here are the possible causes:

1.  Depleted Uranium  We used depleted uranium to harden our artillery shells to enhance their armor peircing qualities.

2.  Side Effects of the Early Anthrax Vaccine  The earliest anthrax vaccine we used was experimental and may have caused/contributed to GWI

3.  Chemical and/or Biological Weapons  Numerous soldiers, including the one I'm talking about have reported having t protect themselves with maks and suits when  the "litmus paper" turned color....

Why have I gone to such lengths to write this?  From one glaring experience?  Because the last thing we need to do to our heroes is to ignore their suffering like we did not so many years ago to Vietnam vets who suffered from cancers caused by our use of the defoliant "Agent Orange".

We, as a nation, are better than that.

I sit in my living room and watch with wonder our government once again try to dilute the consequences of stupidity.   What we experienced over the last decade or so was a failure, on the part of our economic institutions, to excercise appropriate restraint in their lending practices.  A week never went by that I didn't receive at least three calls, unsolicited, from mortgage lenders who wanted to sell me a "new and better" mortgage.  Now, we had/have a fixed mortgage on our house at 5.75%.  Not too shabby.  At each call, I'd strongly and forcefully tell the person who made the "cold call" the terms under which I'd do business (les than 5.75, no points or closing costs fixed for 30...) and each time , my wife, who has more manners than I do, would scold me for being to brusk.  I didn't see myself as being brusk, I saw myself as excercising economic restraint against promises of reduced monthly payments and better products.  I was being told I could have more fun if I consumed more.

Looking back on this time societally, I think the analogy of Economic Alcoholism fits well.  We were drunk with new and creative mortgages.  People who otherwise couldn't afford homes drank freely from the keg of mortgage bootleggers who made their livings by selling mortgages.  The situation was unrestrained by common sense, and has recenty staggered under the pall of bad loans.  Just recenlty, we have seen economic institutions like Bear Stearns, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and now Lehmann Brothers "hug the commode" of economic failure and puke their economic guts out.  Economic drunkenness.

So, what do we do as a society?  Do we allow the drunk to suffer the consequences of his excesses?  Do we allow him to be caught and disciplined for his behavior?  Nope..we sure don't.

We bail them out like the kind, well intentioned and co-dependent wife bails out her drunken husband.  We are re-creating the likelihood of economic excess in our corporations with bailout plans, just as sure as the wife who calls her husband's boss and says he's sick when he's pukin' up Jack Daniels.

Ladies and gentlemen, as a man with 22 years of sobriety (Thank God and the Fellowship), I'm here to tell you it don't work with drunks, and it won't work with corporations.  There is nothing like the natural consequences of human behavior to help shape it.  Let the unrestrained corporations fail, and let the temperate ones prevail.  Capitalism cures Economic Alcoholism, not Government Co-dependence.

OK, Doomsday Dudes, here it is.  Remember the predictions about $5.00/galon heating oil?  Remember the predictions of $5 or $6 a gallon gasoline prices?  Remember the panic to buy...r the panic of HOW we'd buy...the oil to heat our homes this winter?  Maybe...just maybe.

Now, let's put this in context.  And important context it is.  Isn't there a hurricane bearing down on Houston?  Aren't there refineries in Houston?  Aren't there oil rigs pumping nice dark Gulf crude?  Aren't they threatened by the hurricane?  Yes they are, but it had no impact!

Let's back up the bus.  More context please.  Drum roll...didn't OPEC just cut production for the express purpose of raising prices?  The envelope please....Yep.  They did. My oh my...Oil went down below $100 a barrell in spite of these supply-side issues!!!

Know why?  Investors think supply will go up.  Know why?  Investors think we're gonna pump!!  Know why?  Republicans are pumpers, and this tells ya they are winning.

....Bill Belechick secures his place as the most prescient coach in NFL history.  Has it occurred to anyne else that the simple act of drafting Matt Cassel was, statistically dubious at best?  He ran only a handful of plays his entire college career, and hadn't started a football game since his senior year in high schook in 1999 (That's right folks, the last freakin' millenium!!)

And yet, taking over for injured Tom Brady last week, he threw 18 for 23 with over 150 yards and one touchdown.  He hit Randy Moss for a 51 yard strike.  He "general'ed" a running game that put two backs over 50 yards in 10 carries each (Yep, that's over a 5 yard a carry average for both Maroney and Morris.).

Now, I'm a season ticket holder.  I live with a woman who would take your life for insulting the Patriots.  I go way back....

But what is this saying about the Patroits organization?  This is scarin' me!!!  Bill, I'm impressed.

As I watch the commentary following John McCain's acceptance speech last night, I can't avoid thinking.worrying that the choice we have this November is between entertainers and leaders.  I watched VB this morning and can completely understand his position about John McCain's speech last night, I just can't accept it.  I mean, why wouldn't VB say what he said?  What does he do?  He's an entertainer.  He plies his craft by speaking in front of a camera.  He knows that good delivery is more important than good content.  It's what he takes home 7 figures to do.  why wouldn't it be imnportant if folks pay that much money for it.

That may be a damned good decision in television, but it is a horrible decision in national leadership.  The future of our country has best not be based on how entertaining a man is, but how effective he is.  Did John McCain deliver like Jay Leno in his monologue?  Not by a damn sight...did he give us substance?  He sure did.  He talked about taxes and his stand on them.  He talked about national security, and his stand and his record on that.  He talked about the burden placed on citizens by oil prices and gave his solutions on that.  He spoke about education and told us he'd give parent choices back, and said he'd expect that underperforming schools be brought up to standard.  He said he'd put in place a system that rewarded excellent teachers and assisted the poor ones in finding other employment. He spoke of children with disabilities and his commitment to them.

But equally as important to me, he spoke of loyalty and commitment, of service and sacrifice, of success born of hard work and core values.  And he told me how he evolved from a selfish man to a man of service.  Now, I don't spend alot of my time worrying about my courage or my ability to prevail.  I got over that a long time ago.  I'm proud of who I am and how I've gotten here.

But I was truly humbled last evening.  Here's a man who lived through worse than I saw, who told me it was a blessing.  Here's a man who admits to the arrogance and narcissism of youth, and is thankful he was transformed.

John McCain didn't speak to me about hope, he embodied it.  He didn't inspire me by his words, but by his deeds.  I do not have to judge his promises; I need only look to his accomplishments.  Is he fallible?  Yep, he told us so.  But so aren't we all.  What he told me was how his fallibility was tested by misfortune and how he rose above it.

VB is right.  John McCain is a lousy entertainer...

OK, folks, after a few days of hearing, from the sainted pundits on every freakin' news channel in existence, about questions raised by the pregnancy of Sarah Palin's OLDEST daughter, and what that says about both her  Mom's suitability as a parent and a Vice President, it's time to speak about Sarah Palin's YOUNGEST daughter, and what her behavior says about her mother's family values.

How many folks here were as touched as I was watching this young girl hold her infant brother?  How many other folks here smiled the smile only a loving parent can smile when she licked her hand and fixed this little boy's hair repeatedly?

How many of us asked ourselves, "Where did this little girl learn this love and compassion?"  I didn't.  As a father and parent, I knew exactly where she learned it.  She learned it from her mother.  You see, at that age, children are a reflection almost solely on their parents.  They do not experience adult rational thought.  They do not question the meaning of their activities. They mimick the behavior of their same sex parent.  When children become teenagers, they begin to differentiate and think on their own. They question the wisdom of their parents.  They rebel.  It's what teenagers do.  Got teenagers?  If you do, you know.

You see folks, the pregnancy of Bristol Palin is a reflection of her rebellion and not her mother's values alone, nor of her effectiveness as a Mom.  It's just not that easy.

But the behavior of that little girl is a direct reflection on her parents....

Where are the pundits this morning?

At a time when my already slackening faith in our Free Press was at what seemed to me an all-time high, I get slapped in the face with another abomination.  John McCain's selected running mate, Sarah Palin's 17 year old daughter is pregnent.  Major national news...not.  I am equally disheartened...maybe more so...when I see news anchors and commentators say that this issue is inconsequential, yet report on it incessantly.  The salacious being repeated by the mindless.

Now tonight, when Sarah Palin will give an address that will define her for what truly matters, her ideals, values and record as the Governor of Alaska, our alleged journalists are already focusing in on the fact that her daughter Bristol's boyfriend, the father of her baby, will be in attendance.  Not the issues, not the future, the gossip.

Now, as a parent, I understand a few things.  I have been made extremely aware recently of just how powerless I am (we are) in the face of decisions made by our "grown up" children.  Folks, I'm here to tell you that you can teach values till you're blue in the face, and still have your kids make big...very big..mistakes.  I'm also here to tell you that our children have humbled us by placing us in the position where our only ethical outlet is to support them after mistakes are made, in an effort to guide them toward the personal resolution of their issues.

Good parenting is not perfection; it's persistence.

Here's what I think:  I think Sarah Palin, tonight, on the most important professional day of her life so far, is being a mother first, and a damned good one under the circumstances.  I do not believe that Bristol's boyfriend is being flown in as a political ploy.  As a political ploy, it just plain stinks.  It continues a story, being used by her opposition to attack her very belief system, by her actions.  The "savvy" political solution to "Unwed Mother-gate" is to allow it to die a natural death.  Cause of death?  Boredom...Inconsequence.

Instead, at risk to her candidacy for Vice President of the United States, she is being a mother first.  Ya see folks, there's another explanation...one that doesn't sell advertising time, or make the careers of "talking heads".

Sarah Palin, at risk to her career advancement, is "walking the walk" of family values.  Whether or not she believes in her daughter's actions some 5 months ago, she is accepting the father of her grandchild into her family on the most significant evening of their lives so far. To exclude him is lousy family values!!!

And for all the years of education....not a single reporter or commentator in the Boston broadcast press has seen it, or had the decency to report on it.

Ya...I'm outraged...you bet!!

As is my penchant, I had a "synthetic moment" today on the way to the office.  While serving my daily "anxiety penance" about how we are going to pay our heating bills this winter, I harkened back to my college days.  Ya see, kids are going back to college this weeek and I....Oh well, no use trying to follow my logic....

Anyway, I was remembering my freshman dorm back in the days of "all male colleges" and "all male dorms".  Any of you remember that?  And, after watching T. Boone Pickens advertisement on TV about the use of natural gas as a more frequent, and domestic energy source, I started thinking about methane as an alternative energy source.

Ah yes...the "boys", bored sitting around the dorm "lighting farts"....then I thought...Jeez, if we'd lit them all at once, we'd produce as much hot air as Bill Clinton and John Kerry did last evening in Denver.

I really think I'm on to something here...well at least something as credible as Barack Obama's energy plan....which seems to disipate as quickly as one of those unlit farts.....

I sat and watch Duh-val Patrick take the stage at the Democratic National Convention, and many thought/questions came to mind.  The one that was primary in my mind was: What's so special about Duh-val Patrick that earns him a prime time slot at the DNC?

I mean, let's be reasonable here for a second.  Has the first half of his first term in his first political office been a stellar success? Ummmmm...NOT!!!  He began by buying himself an expensive luxury car at our expense, followed it by furnishing his State House Office with expensive furniture and drapes, at our expense, then culminated his first few months of taxpayer supported "shop-aholism" with hiring a personal secretary for his wife on the taxpayer dole.  Took this little boy three times with his hand caught in the cookie jar to learn that Mommy and Daddy ain't giving out unlimited cookies....

Let's look at his legislative record....OOPS...there isn't one.

Let's look at his fiscal management...OOPS...he's spending again...How many employees have been added to the State payrole while he's been in office?  The largest percentage at Mass Highway?  In one of the Unions who bankrolled his campaign? HMMM....

OK, his platform of reduction of property taxes?  He ran based partly on that right?  Opps...my local property taxes went up 15% last year...OUCH!!!

So...I ask myself...What are Duh-val's qualification to be "hired" to speak, in prime time, at the DNC?  He has none.

What I'm going to say here is as politically incorrect as anything you've ever read here (at least on the blog side!!!).  And what I'm going to say is as factually accurate as anything that I've ever said. 

Duh-val Patrick took the podium at the DNC last evening for one reason and one reason only:  He's black.  How sad is that folks?  You see, what you really saw was the cultural end product of a well intentioned social policy gone bad.  Affirmative Action.

In our cultural zeal to mend the historical wounds of slavery and racism, we have re-invented racism!!!  Ya see folks, when one of the major political parties, at its convention to pick a Presidential candidate, picks a failed Governor who is black to speak on prime time, they are sending the subtle message out that "This is the best it gets..."

Dammit...it isn't.  We have plenty of competent black, hispanic...end the litany of ethnic groups..folks who could have spoken last night.  The Democrats just can't find one in their ranks....

Affirmative Action has failed in the ranks of the people who created it....

I'd like to share with you the body of an email I just received.  As a Retired fire Chief, I'm a Life Memeber of the Fire Chiefs' Associatioin of Massachusetts and am on their email list.

Thank God!

"The Ashburnham Firefighters Association/Ashburnham Fire Department is being honored by the Department of Defense with the Seven Seals Award. This is for our efforts in sending supplies including the ambulance to Afghanistan (we are just waiting a shipping date). Obviously we do not do what we do for awards and accolades. Just knowing we are helping people in need is enough thanks.

The ambulance project could not have been accomplished without the help and caring of the Fire Chiefs Association of Massachusetts, the Mid-state Mutual Aid Association and especially Fire District 14. We have also had great business and vendor support with supplies and materials. THANK YOU ALL!

The award ceremony will be at 11:00 hours on August 12, 2008 on Ashburnham Town Hall Lawn. My understanding is that this is shaping up to be a pretty big event with several legislators attending/speaking and representatives of the 7 Armed Forces including a 2 Star General. Please join us as you all deserve the credit for all of your contributions." 

Enough said.  Men and women of God....

As I watched Jim Barretto this morning on the "Legally Speaking" segment, I was praying that he, and Kim would put their two seperate stories together.  The hospital smoking ban in Ohio, and the disability pension fiasco in Boston.  Those stories don't intersect, you think? 

Actually they do, and in a way the general public should like.  Since November 1, 1996, firefighters appointed after that date may not smoke.  Not on the job...not at restaurants...not at home..not at all.  This was driven by "pension reform".  In the late '80's, most communities in the Commonwealth's employees were covered under County Retirement Systems.  (Not Boston, who maintained their own)  These county retirement systems were crumbling under the weight of disability pensions from police and firefighters.  What most citizens may not know is that these folks work under a "presumptive Heart and Lung provision" that assumes the stress of the job, and inhaled toxins causes heart and lung disease, and any such disease is presumed to be job related.  Makes sense, actually, if you factor in otherwise clean breathing habits and a decent degree of physical fitness.

So, when the Legislature "bailed out" the County Retirement Systems, what they really did was to absorb them into the State Retirement System and to place administration of retirements under the "Public Employee Retirement Administration Commission (PERAC)"  They also passed a law that requires that PERAC promulgate and maintain physical fitness standards for firefighters and police officers.  This law is Chapter 31 Sections 61A and 61B.

This law didn't stiffen the standards for a disability retirement, it stiffened the accountability on how they were awarded.  Firefighters lost the right to smoke.  They also have to pass a state mandated physical fitness test, and to be retested every two years.  I was intimately (and trust me...at times it felt like the "other kind of intimacy"!!!) involved in the negotiations for these standards as a representative of the Fire Chiefs Association of Massachusetts.  At that table was the President of the Professional Firefighters of Massachusetts as well.  None of us opposed the standards.  All of us wanted to ensure they were fair and equal.

The moral of this story?  Almost all firefighters in Massachusetts work under strict rules regarding disability retirement.  Only Boston doesn't.  Not because of the firefighters, or the Union.

You figure it out!!!

As the ongoing saga of Boston Firefighter (folks, it brings bile to my throat to type that, trust me.) Arroyo unfolds, and the public perception of both firefighters in general, and the Jakes on the Boston Fire Department goes down the "crapper", I want to take a minute to tell a story of a guy who didn't take disability.

In 1996, as part of my duties as Fire Chief in my community (I admit, not the worst of those duties....) I had the pleasure of going to Ocala, Fla to attend what is called a "pre-build conference" for an engine we were purchasing from Emergency One.  At the time that I was there, three guys from the Boston Fire Department were also there, working out the final spec's for two engines a ladder and a lighting truck.  Needless to say, we are significantly smaller than the BFD!!!  One of these guys was Kevin Flynn, Head of Maintenance and the brother of Mayor Flynn, the second was a retired Lieutenant who was expert in fire apparatus design and a consultant to Commissioner Stapleton, and a Captain named Hugh Duffy.  Although we worked in seperate rooms, and fought fires in substantially seperate worlds, we dined in the same restaurants, and this old chief became a real fan of Hugh Duffy.  We never stayed in contact, but his story I'llo never forget.

At the first dinner we attended together, he invited me to join him in the hot tub the subsequent morning at 6 AM.  He said it was part of his "rehab" and I willingly agreed.  Now folks, understand that, although this was Florida, it was winter there, and the dawn temperatures were close to frost levels...but we were firefighters...we were men.

When I met Hugh at the hot tub, I asked him about why he was "rehabbing".  He told the following story.  About a year previously, he had been Captain of the House in Brighton.  A fire had come in for a residenttial structure and he was supervising the interior crews who were face to face with a bigtime fire, inside the building.  An unexpected (duh) floor collapse occurred, and he, and another firefighter fell through the floor into the basement.  The other firefighter was a rookie that Captain Duffy was keeping close for his protection.  Both of the men were trapped in the basement.  Hugh told me that the rookie was holding on to his boot, obviously frightenened.  Hugh's back was seriously injured in the fall, and a burning timber was laying on his shoulder.  The scars from the full thickness burn were evident on his shoulders as we sat there.  He couldn't move; he couldn't get out; they were trapped and he was being serioiusly burned.  He never said it, but I know he thought his number was up.  I would have.

Into that basement came a mutual aid crew from Brookline, pouring water on the burning timbers.  Hugh jokingly told of the rookie yelling, "Hey you're gonna drown us!!!"  And the Brookline Jake yelling back, "Do you want to "freakin" (I translate here!!) drown or do you want to "freakin" burn to death?"  Hugh laughingly said, "My rookie didn't say another word till they took us out."

Saved from almost certain death, Captain Duffy spent the next year on extended sick leave, rehabbing himself.  Commissioner Stapleton put him on administrative duty when he was well enough, and was trying to convince him to stay there.  Hugh wanted back "on a company".

When I last heard about Hugh Duffy, he was running "Moon Island", the Boston Fire Department Training Facility.  You see, ladies and gentlemen, the Boston Fire Department, like every other in this Commonwealth, wants more Hugh Duffy's.  None of them want Firefighter Arroyo.

And my request....when you think of the Boston Fire Department, think Hugh Duffy...think Stevie Minehan...please don't think of Arroyo.  He just ain't a "good Jake".