Not All Volunteer Firefighters Go Home! Honor and Duty to Their Communities

Firefighters are the ideal volunteer and warriors in the new world where climate change and our internal resources are stressed.  They work, take care of their families, and if need be drop everything to help their community. These guys and gals go out there and are not paid. Many are staying in good physical condition, practicing, and learning everyday. They do it because they know someone must do it. While some feel that such volunteers are not necessary, and/or do not contribute to the resource capacity of the area, I would beg to differ. 

Let us look at some statistics from an NFPA Report (NFPA, para 1)

-NFPA estimates there were an estimated 1,041,200 career and volunteer firefighters in the United States in 2020. Of the total number of firefighters 364,300 (35%) were career firefighters and 676,900 (65%) were volunteer firefighters.

-In 2020, 89,600 firefighters were female (9%). Of the career firefighters, 17,200 were female. There were also 72,400 volunteer firefighters who were female.

-Fifty percent of firefighters are between 30 and 49 years old.

-There were 29,452 fire departments in the United States in 2020. Of these, 18% were all career or mostly career departments and protected 70% of the US population.

-Nationwide 37% of fire departments provided no emergency medical services, 46% provided basic life support (BLS), and 17% provided advanced life support (ALS)

Before one discounts the value of volunteer firefighters let us consider the concept of altruism and how that is likely high in the volunteer firefighter populate (see below). They are out there training and responding to calls while many of the rest of us are on the couch watching tv. They are just a different breed of people who know their activities do make a difference. Heroes in the old style!

Volunteer firefighting is central to the safety and responder capacity of the surrounding communities and because they are actively practicing every week it makes them one of the more up-to-date local departments. (That reminds me that I should keep learning while I'm traveling and help get resources because they are wisely used here.). Please consider sharing your corporate and personal resources with people who are out there doing the right thing!  HERE. (We are in need of a grass truck and share our training and other resources with the other limited resource departments in the area. For those of us who are 'desk jockeys'. If you can't be there to help, then help them in other ways. Its a community thing. oh! and tax deductible! 💁)

Remember, these men and women are out there risking their lives. Not everyone does go home! If you are up for a meaningful challenge in your life there are a number of local fire departments that would likely want to talk to you. I know one does for sure! Make a difference!

Consider a study in 2022  Lived Experiences of Regular Volunteer Emergency First Responders: A Phenomenological Research

First responders, volunteer firefighters, EMT, etc....seem to share some characteristics: 

(a) desire to help transcends volunteers’ age, civil status, years of service, and educational attainment; (b) helping others is a rewarding experience;
(c) constant retraining and camaraderie among peers can easily surmount financial difficulties and lack of equipment; and,
(d) willingness on the part of volunteer-responders to face injury or death in the process of helping others.

(On a scale of 1-10 the salary sucks but the ability to give back is an awesome benefit. They do it for free! FYI...there isn't enough resources out there when volunteer firefighters do go down and their families need help. I think our priorities are confused.) 

Feel free to share its a small act that sometimes makes a difference! 

 

Detroit Police and Fire Pension Board: Investment Body Slammmm!

 $100K is not that much money but there has been a host of problems with investments from a number of funds and retirement accounts around Detroit. In this case, it looks like the Detroit Fire and Police Pension Fund is pushing for accountability from one of the companies it invested in. Mostly, it is a challenge to the company's leadership that will require the company to choose to either pay back the fund and/or remove the controversial figure.  

You can see the boards pages HERE.  Whom will win in this investment body slammmm? Off the ropes!

(As a side point, Its interesting to watch the strategy and how they play out in the actual environment. You kind of need to understand the history of pension funds to sort of get a picture of some prior challenges with investments and vetting of such investments. In any event, the Detroit Police and Firefighters deserve to have their pensions protected and decisions being made over that very tempting tempting pool of money should always be in the best interest of their public servant stakeholders. As long as they and their needs are central to all decision making then fiduciary responsibility has been met. )

Biking and Getting Shape During Daily Commute-The Digital Nomads Way!

We all have errands to do and the first thing we do is jump in a car and get them done. For those of us who travel we often rent, take a ride share service or public transportation. We might not think of biking as a preferred transportation. Biking is a great way to get in shape. I have a trainers certificate (fyi in case you need some help) so I'm always looking into creative ways to get in shape without looking like I'm getting in shape (I don't want to feel like I'm working out but instead living a positive lifestyle with with certain goals and objectives in mind.). 

Like many of you I got into this rut where I was working out but not really improving. Over trained, sore and tired. The first thing I did was change my eating habits and then I changed the variety in my workouts. It made all the difference!

While I don't have any plans at being a serious bike person for speed racing I do like using my bike to get around town. I'm commuting around San Diego (SD) to get to the gym, grocery store, and visit friends. Because I'm near the coast that is easier with all the beach trails. SD is bike friendly and public transportation friendly in general compared to many cities. 

A digital nomad is a person who can move anywhere and work anywhere. I have met people who don't have homes but just travel the world. In my case, I have a home but still travel significantly. A bike is really a good digital nomad form of transportation because we often roam within tourist areas on a daily basis. When we have to go long distance we rent, bum a ride, or ride share.

I came across a very nice article in the about some of the health benefits. Of course another motivating video!!!! (It helps when I bike to the gym and its damp out.)

As a stoic tip for life.... You will see a much richer neighborhood with detail when you get out of the car and walk and bike. Things you would never have seen become more apparent. 

New Research Indicates Cycling To Work Has Extraordinary Health Benefits

  

Ukrainians to Train in Germany and U.S.

 I support the budding of democracy in Ukraine and the development of the democratic system internationally. It isn't about Russia as I do think at some point we will need to reconnect them back to the global world. In my mind it is more about Ukraine to choose its own path and allow a level of independence to chart its own course. When Russians go home, and assuming that they follow normalized international norms, then there will likely be a level of reconciliation. Of course as usual games are more important for some powerful personalities then the needs of their people. 

500+ Ukrainians are going to Germany to train on new equipment and learn how to coordinate their activities. Likewise, Ukrainians are coming to the U.S. to train on the mobile Patriot Missile Batteries. The goal is to ensure that when and if Russians create a wave that they are expelled out and that land can be recaptured. There is a strategy in place and I suspect it will function as it should. There are always contingencies so expect the unexpected. 

There are some reports that a Russian 35th Battalion has been captured yesterday but its not really confirmed. 

2023 Martin Luther King's Day-On the Path to a Universal Democracy

Martin Luther King brought us a perspective that many people knew but couldn't formalize it into words. He was the voice not only of Black people but also of every person in this country that believes in equality among peoples and a future universal democracy. Our next step is one in which we move from desire to actualization of equality. The difference of opportunity not being from racial or religious flavoring but solely determined by the merits and abilities of the person.

It is a society in which freedom makes our nation one of the most advanced the world has ever seen through the sheer power of equality, opportunity, and excellence! We can reach this island where generations of dreams and hopes have made their home when the power of truth, light and justice overshadows the values of jealousy, bitterness, and sociably acceptable hate. 

The best and brightest must come forward no matter their background. It is their duty to be the best they can be and teach a new path.

We as a nation have come to recognize many of the past mistakes in our chaotic process of growth and we are at a unique spot in history where major economic and social transitions are in the works and have already a set course. It is the wings of positive change that will carry us far above our competitors and open the doors to national health. We must only decide that our belief in building the future is more powerful than the destructive beliefs of the past. No longer should the voice of distortion and division be given the microphone and the anvil simply to spite good moral conscious. Let wiser voices rise above the hum of ignorance!

What is your path? Mine has already been chosen. Unfold your personal blueprint that leads to diverse economic prosperity for ALL Americans......

Delta County MI Board Meeting: What Happened? (January 5th 2023)

Escanaba exists inside Delta County Michigan which is attracting some interest as vacation and investment destination. While they are different governing entities they sometimes need to coordinate to achieve longer term goals (i.e serving their population). In order to determine what potential economic initiatives and activities might come to a fruitful end we will need a level of knowledge of the activities of both (i.e what brings me here to understand as I engage in theory development). 

Why?

Well, politics is politics and as we know good and bad can come of that. At its root, all governance is about coordination different elements to create value for people (i.e. the ultimate stakeholders.) Being focused on helping their community and raising standards of living within the county can make a big difference in opening doors. We want to start sketching a path to prepare the economic landscape for the next generation. (In case there is confusion that is ALL our children. 💁). Each generation is built on the actions of the prior. Keeping them in mind helps people anchor their decisions (Feedback for Delta County Master Plan-2020). 

Information Blank Spot

I really wanted to watch the video of the meeting but I couldn't. 😢😭 The county page doesn't appear to have the January 5th 2023 meeting uploaded yet and I am not seeing it on YouTube either (They may not have a YouTube Channel). I think the county should do what Escanaba does and upload the videos just so people can watch at their leisure (In todays 24/7 world not everyone can login specifically at that time. The videos may be somewhere but I'm not seeing it at the moment. I used the search term "Delta County Michigan", "Delta County Commission Board", and various Boolean combinations. If you find where they are hosted please share with me. 🙇 FYI. I asked via their contact page if they had the agenda/minutes from the last meeting. You can contact them HERE if you desire. *update below**Additional update.)

New Team 

This is an interesting article that came out in our local and beloved Daily Press (FYI This is a good spot to put advertisements for local demographics.). Delta County Board has rocky start to new year. the article is not flattering so I'm not going to repeat some of it but it has something to do with Open Meeting/Sunshine laws. I'm very neutral for the moment because while I understand some of the personalities, I just can't have an opinion based on one article. It takes time to understand and its important to be receptive but not preemptive of judgement (In other words, its not my place to make judgement on things I don't know but it is my place to seek to understand if personalities help or hinder development for everyone else. ). 

Norm and Storm

Consider that just like any team you are likely to experience a little storming before there is a level of norming.  We can learn about how teams go through different stages An Exploratory Study of Group Development and Team Learning. The principles of applied psychology as it relates to government and/or business is still present as each person and team makes choices for a variety of reasons that relate to information (i.e. usually limited information and time), resources available to meet those challenges (This is why economic coordination to create a stronger local economy improves future adaptability of the community.) and personality (The neuroeconomic choices that leads to final choices. Self reflection and strategic decision making often improve those choices and outcomes. Consider Neuroeconomic Foundations of Economic Choice, The Neurological Approach, Decisions and Uncertainty  Psycho-Graphic-Delta)

The next meeting is January 17th, 2023 at 5:15 PM. You can see the limited agenda HERE. I still didn't see an agenda of either meetings but I have to admit I didn't spend a lot of time looking. That may require linking properly and if they are not up then I would believe it would be smart to start putting up the agenda for transparency reasons. Before anyone gets excited growth is a process of continuous improvement and over time that adds up to create momentum and prosperity. The details are sometimes important because there are likely lots of stakeholders interested in these meetings and related information. If I was an investor and wanted to invest money into the county I would want to obtain information that leads to decreased risks (From an investment standpoint, information is necessary for decision making that leads to more businesses within the county. See EV MI,  Start Up Invest Hedge)

*The administrator did respond. It takes time for the minutes to make their way onto the site. It looks like a month based on past agendas. I would likely shorten that to under a week to ensure the public has access. The video is available upon request through the County Administrator at https://deltacountymi.gov/administration/ I responded to the email and said thank you and then contacted the County Administrator to ask if they have the videos and/or are hosting them anywhere like Escanaba does. **01/17/2022 The County Administrator was gracious enough to reply and future meetings will be uploaded onto the County Site and YouTube. You can still request access to older videos. Its a feedback loop. It is a positive sign of adaptability and a learning organization. Let us see what the future brings! I'm so excited to watch!

The Digital Era American Data Privacy and Protection Act ( H.R.8152)

What is in the American Data Privacy and Protection Act and why was it proposed? It appears we are falling in line with many other nations that have begun the process of protecting consumer and citizen data. That becomes increasingly important as other nations and people use this information (Sometimes for good purposes and sometimes not so much.). There are hackers and criminals as well as scammers and profiteers. So this bill seeks to protect data not only for consumers but also for sensitive government information. It seeks to make market changes that limits certain undesirable behaviors.

A few things from the bill (No endorsement or lack of endorsement. Understanding is key)....

-The bill appears to look at how are handling, or mishandling, information. 

"This bill establishes requirements for how companies, including nonprofits and common carriers, handle personal data, which includes information that identifies or is reasonably linkable to an individual." (H.R.8152 para 1)

-The bill hopes to improve protections for consumers and allow consumers more control over what data is out there.

"The bill establishes consumer data protections, including the right to access, correct, and delete personal data." (H.R.8152 para 3)

-It also seeks to help people opt out of targeted advertising. 

"Prior to engaging in targeted advertising, the bill requires companies to provide individuals with a means to opt out of such advertising. (H.R.8152 para 3)

-Because of concerns of misuse there are additional protections for children (That makes sense to me.).

"The bill also provides additional protections with respect to personal data of individuals under the age of 17. It further prohibits companies from using personal data to discriminate based on specified protected characteristics" (H.R.8152 para 3) (Same old problems some are trying to carry forward when we really should be universalizing. I'm not debating specifics here but just the concept that being online doesn't change the responsibilities one has to society and our core values. Which policy, how, when, case law, etc. is a much longer process of definition.)

Much of theft is often form databases and other large data pools that are ripe for exploiting and combining. Companies love to gather the information from consumers in witting ways but once it becomes stale data it is often left out in cyberspace somewhere or sold for cheap (Do you really wonder where all those spamm calls come from? Someone probably collected, organized, and sold your and your family's data without you even knowing it.) Basically, low value data will be under protected. That may not have value for the company anymore but it does have value for foreign entities. 

"Additionally, companies must implement security practices to protect and secure personal data against unauthorized access, and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) may issue regulations for complying with this requirement." (H.R.8152 para 4)

People are people and many are self interested (Nah! No way!). If you don't have an enforcement arm good luck trying to actually implement the program. Someday, companies will find greater value in protecting the data and their brand image but for now only a few companies got hit hard in the market for data theft and there reputations recovered sometime thereafter (However, the rest of us know they were negligent with the information and haphazard with how it was stored and protected. The uniformed consumer might not know anything. I still shop there sometimes because they helped us understand the importance of managing data responsibly and they were like any other company. The difference was it was huge and someone reported it. 🛒). I think companies will someday have all types of legal challenges when they don't protect or destroy data correctly.

"The bill provides for enforcement of these requirements by the FTC and state attorneys general. Beginning four years after the bill's enactment, individuals may, subject to certain notification requirements, bring civil actions for violations of the bill." (H.R.8152 para 5)

Blah, blah, blah......😴💤....blah, blah.......legal stuff....blah, blah.....orators......blah blah......zzzz you can sort of just glance at what is in the next sentence and keep going.

"Finally, the bill preempts state laws that are covered by the provisions of the bill except for certain categories of state laws and specified laws in Illinois and California."H.R.8152 para 6

People steal and misuse data all the time. When the Internet was forming it was like the Wild West and data was its six shooter pistol. I came from one of the first batches of computer nerds (Commodore 64 and Atari) when home computers in my area were still rare. In todays world, we would be considered the grandfathers and grandmothers of the now emerging Digital Era (Programming was simple back then. A box or circle bouncing around. I mean, its not like its the Matrix or anything; at least not yet. {Ok sorry...I digress.... 🤣 I'm just joking, its sort of funny. It was meant to be light hearted.})

However, we are pretty much connected everywhere and all the time in today's world. We should expect little privacy and we should expect to have intrusive type advertisement that often know more about you than you might know about yourself (No joke!). (See Psychographics and example Delta County Psychographics. I live a Digital Nomads life so I'm a little more aware than the average of how the basics function. Because we are moving into a new era there will also be some locations like Escanaba that could someday become digital nomad lands that attract the creative class through lifestyle interest.)

The early Internet had no rules! It was the 'Galactic Network' of the Wild West with no way of really monitoring the system. It was designed to be sort of dispersed. Fast forward a few decades and the world is full of data and it streams constantly like airstreams. People are grabbing, playing with it, changing it, collecting it, adjusting it, misusing it, reporting on it, studying it, etc. Most don't have a clue how much data is out there! (So much that there is a kind of global collective conscious.)

American Data Privacy and Protection Act ( H.R.8152) is a truly Digital Era legislation designed around the problems of managing chronically streaming data. The infrastructure updates are necessary to create the networks that lead to information transference but this legislation is designed to protect data and slow foreign ability to get that data. Thus, one is the hard structure and the other is becoming the operational rules. Whether its this legislation or another, there will be a need to protect data. The devil is now in the details as our national leaders debate each of its aspects, drawbacks, and potentials. 

H.R.8152 - 117th Congress (2021-2022): American Data Privacy and Protection Act. (2022, December 30). https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/8152

Bateman, J. (Oct. 12, 2022). Biden Is Now All-In on Taking Out China. Foreign Policy. https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/10/12/biden-china-semiconductor-chips-exports-decouple/

Abel, M. (Oct. 4th, 2021). U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai speaks at Center for Strategic and International Studies. Academic Capital. http://www.academic-capital.net/2021/10/us-trade-representative-katherine-tai.html

White House (November 14th. 2022) Readout of President Joe Biden’s Meeting with President Xi Jinping of the People’s Republic of China. 

 https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/11/14/readout-of-president-joe-bidens-meeting-with-president-xi-jinping-of-the-peoples-republic-of-china/

 

Ezrati, M. (Dec. 5th, 2022). Biden Escalates The Economic War With China. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/miltonezrati/2022/12/25/biden-escalates-the-economic-war-with-china/?sh=77b3e6b512f3