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Presidents
Corner
Roberto Jourdan
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Hello all....
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Hello All and welcome,
This small piece of the vast internet is reserved for the Seattle Black Firefighters Association. We are more than glad to have you here for a visit. Our organization has been around since 1968 and we are in existence to help black men and women get a career in professional firefighting and helping them advance through the ranks. Community involvement is an important piece of our DNA also. We are proud members of the International Association of Black Professional Fire Fighters and Life members of the NAACP. We don’t take these associations lightly; they highlight who we are and what we stand for.
We are recruiting brothers and sisters year round to test for the Seattle Fire Department. We don’t by any means claim that it is any easy journey on the contrary it is a very competitive process. We know there are brothers and sisters more than capable of being an asset to the Seattle Fire Department and we need those folks to apply. If you or someone you know has the ability and the drive to join the Seattle Fire department please go to www.Seattlefirejobs.com and get all the information you need to get started in your journey.
The securing of jobs as fire fighters are essential to the well being of the black community in so many areas, financial, educational and spiritual. We challenge you to do your part and apply and we will help as best we can to make you successful in this endeavor. As you look at the news reports now a days cities are being taken to court for the past and present prejudices against black people and women sooner than later justice will prevail. This is the reason we must continue to fight for what is right and just…there were folks who fought against a huge machine and paid dearly to make sure we had a right to have a very small piece of this profession, we don’t want it to have been in vain. We want to reach out to the younger generation of African Americans, take your children to fire stations and expose them to a profession that they can aspire to..Let them know that they too can do this. We try to get to as many young folks as we can from preschool to seniors in college to let them know this is a good and noble profession. We’re involved in many community based activities and are honored to do so. The teaching of fire prevention and first aid in our community has been a vital component in the reduction of fatal fires in Seattle…we will continue to travel down this path. We are YOUR Seattle Black Fire Fighters…All I am I owe..I am Eternally in the Red.
Roberto Jourdan
President
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mail to:
jourdan@sbffa.org
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VP's House
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Cardell Thompson
Welcome back to my place! I know it’s been a little while since I last reached out, so please forgive me for being less than timely with my communique’ to you, my fire fighting family. This has been an incredible year indeed. I graduated from EDI in Atlanta, with my family in attendance. I attended the IABPFF Convention in New Orleans. I’ve witnessed the strength and perseverance of our President as he maneuvers his way around a group of politicians who would rather he fail at his vision for America; even if that means that the country suffers. I have become even more of an advocate for the Race and Social Justice Initiative as it pertains to the City of Seattle and the Seattle Fire Dept. Childhood and family friends have passed away, gone on to their reward. I’ve met and befriended people who have made my life richer just by being in it. Throw in the requisite ups and downs; and you can see this has been a time of great change, some good, some not so much. Through it all, God the Creator has allowed me to once again wake up and face another day, to remain steadfast, to rest assured, firm in the knowledge that with Him all things are possible.
As you may know Seattle Fire Dept. is accepting applications for the hiring process until Jan. 7; and it is time for each of us to become a recruiter. This is only the 51st year of there being Black firefighters in the SFD and I say only because it has been in the span of my lifetime that this historic change took place. I’m sure you know someone that you would like to share information of this career with. We cannot pay back the people that fought, protested, suffered, and yes, died, so we could be in the positions that we’re in today. So how about we pay forward and help someone to have this opportunity now? If the numbers continue to trend as they have, Black firefighters in Seattle are destined to be extinct. If we do nothing, we, as an organization, as a group, die. Disappear. Cease to exist. Sound a little dramatic? How about this? SFD has 1,000 uniformed members, approximately. Right now there 74 members in the Seattle Black Firefighters. 74!! From a high of approximately 140. So once again, to reiterate, to underscore; in the span of my lifetime (and some of yours too) we’ve gone from no Black firefighters, to a high of 140 and then losing almost half of that number!!
I can add and subtract fairly well, and every once in awhile I can multiply and divide successfully, so I say that this is a math issue, on its face. If you take away more from the number you begin with than you add to it, you are describing a net loss. If you continually register a net loss, you will, with certainty, arrive at zero. Now beneath the face of this mathematical conundrum there are some other things afoot. This goes without saying. We’ve adopted the RSJI as a City and as a Department and to do so we acknowledge the fact that there is a system in place that bestows benefit upon some and denies benefit to others in a completely programmed, and thus predictably sinister fashion. Having said that, I have decided to let that be the topic for a future missive.
Today, we need to recruit someone to this noble profession. Today, we have to be the bearer of the news about a career that will allow one to support and raise a family. Today, we need to pay forward. Today, we have to walk, talk, live, and breathe ‘All That I Am, I Owe. I Live Eternally In The Red’. Today is the day!! Tomorrow is too late!!
Love, peace and blessings, Cardell W. Thompson Vice-President , SBFFA
Cardell W. Thompson,
Vice-President
S.B.F.F.A.
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Regional
Director's Notes
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Reginald Ball |
Greetings Brothers
and Sisters
Summer is here and
there are many issues that need to be
addressed! There are many new, and lone
firefighters throughout the region and
it is time to reach out! We have
members in Multnomah county fire and
rescue, Portland, Anchorage Alaska,
Boise Idaho, Sea-Tac,
Shoreline, Everett, Auburn, Bellevue,
Tacoma, Port of Seattle and WE NEED TO
GET TOGETHER ON SOME IMPORTANT ISSUES.
The
summer meeting in Seattle will give
members old and new a chance to meet
discuss issues important to survival
in the fire service. There is some new
energy out here in the region and I
know by talking to some that they are
“Willing to lead and seem More than
eager to SERVE.”
This
year 7 members from the northwest
attended Executive Development
Institute. Five from Seattle and Two from
Tacoma Fire Department. Kudos for
those who are striving to excel in the
fire service. It is exciting to think
that with new members that number can
increase with the excitement that EDI has
created
With a
global pandemic on the horizon and the
aftermath of mother natures fury,
natural disasters seemingly one after
another, the Fire service will
be called
on to perform "Herculian" tasks again,
and again. These events have made
members of the fie service more
valuable to our communities, and in
our neighborhoods where we will be
looked upon for help and guidance in
emergencies.
We
must be willing to work and not rest
on our laurels and past deeds, and
continue to try to recruit and
encourage people of color that there
is a place for you. The business of
fire fighting has long since outgrown
that name, and we must outgrow the
thought
that there is no hope and time has passed
us on. We can never give up and
because none of us made it on our own. We
are all standing on the shoulders of
our predecessors and ancestors. We can
never forget that."If we are to grow we must know, from whom all
blessing flow “All that I am I owe”
REGGIE BALL/NWRD
mailto:regballnwrd@sbffa.org
Northwest Regional Director
Young fire masters graduate
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