Dispute over Words of a Poem
I ran across this article (from the Times Record) and thought it deserved some attention. The Brunswick firefighters' union wanted to put up a memorial inscribed with A Fireman's Prayer, a poem written by A.W. Linn. The town council had some issues with the wording of the poem.
Several councilors also raised objections to the poem's use of the word "fireman" — as opposed to the gender-neutral word "firefighter" — and the phrase "my children and my wife," which they said implies that only men can serve as firefighters.
Click this link to view the entire poem (FireHouse651.com). Also read the editor's note after the poem.
Luckily, the firefighters were allowed to go forward with the original wording of the poem.
But the six remaining councilors said it would be inappropriate to change the wording of a poem authored by another person and that, at its heart, the poem is simply an homage to the sacrifices firefighters make."I do not think the average woman is going to be threatened by a poem that was written in 1959," said Councilor Joanne King. "It deserves to be on that memorial."
That is right on target. The poem was written in 1959 by a man who was a firefighter. The poem was written from his point of view. It is his prayer asking God to protect his family. The wording of this poem should not be changed.
Other poems should be written to reflect the current state of our fire service. In fact, there are already lots of other firefighter prayers with more politically correct wording. Just do an internet search on "firefighter prayer" and check the results.
In the case of the Brunswick firefighter memorial, perhaps a different prayer could have been chosen, but I don't think there is anything wrong with the prayer that they did choose.
As I searched the internet for a site with the original wording of this poem, I ran across many sites with modified wording. Perhaps these sites should consider using the original wording and also including more recent poems on their sites.
Comments
I am a female firefighter and I don't get offended by it. It was written at a time when firefighters were all male. Even now, people still aren't used to seeing female firefighters. I get double looks when bystanders realize that I am a female. The pink hood may have something to do with the double looks.
Posted by: Mia at November 23, 2005 11:13 AM
Mia,
I think you may be right about your pink hood causing the double takes you are getting :-)
Thanks for dropping by and leaving a comment.
Joe
Posted by: Joe at November 23, 2005 11:35 AM
