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LA County Stentorians > LA County Stentorians Blog
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12/29/2009Effective January 1, 2010, the L.A. County Fire Department will add 1 new Battalion Chief, 11 new Captains and 14 new engineers to it's firefighting ranks. The recent promotions that were made on December 15, 2009 will take effect on New years day.
I say congratulations to the newly promoted people. I also say how sorry it is that none of these newly promoted members were Black! I can understand in the Battalion Chief ranks why we did not pick up any Blacks. All 4 of the Black candidates that were in the promotable band were picked up. But we have 2 members in the promotable band for Captain and 5 members in the promotable band for engineer. How this was missed is the question we need to ask.
When you look at the overall scenario, there appears to be a slow disappearance of Blacks in the ranks. The recruit classes for the 2007/2008 years averaged 1 Black recruit per class. This is an example of a lack of commitment to diversify the rank and file with new Black firefighters.
We can not place blame on the one Black member of the executive staff. The blame for missing this rests with everyone in the decision making process. It all rests with the number one person in charge.
I'd like to know what your opinion is of this. Please respond with civility. Thanks. 9/28/2009Back in December of 2008, I wrote about the need to be a mentor. Today I'm writing about it again.
Since that time, I have been selected to serve as the chair of two mentoring programs. The 100 Black Men of Los Angeles' Mentoring committee and the Los Angeles Cares Mentoring Movement. Let me tell you about each of these programs.
The 100 Black Men of Los Angeles' Mentoring Committee is an arm of the 100's Education Committee. The mentoring program works closely with the Audubon Middle School in Southwest Los Angeles. We meet once a month with the young men in the school's library. A guest speaker is provided to educate and inform the young men about various career professions. We often play educational games and we take the boys on field trips.
The first group of students we launched were promised a full academic scholarship to the University of Southern California, providing they were academically eligible. Our plan is to guide these young men through their middle school years into their high school years. We would shepherd them into our Young Black Scholars program where they will receive more educational resources and assistance. Then they will be ready to accept the promise we made to them when we started.
The mentoring program's motto is "See your future". The belief is that if the young men can see it, they can believe it! They can believe that they will have a chance to succeed.
Our program coordinator was Michael Ng. Michael was an outstanding young man. He was educated in the bay area and graduated from U.C. Davis, where he played Football. Mike had a huge impact on the young men in the program. Unfortunately, we lost Mike as our program coordinator when he moved on to pursue his educational goals by working on his Masters degree. We will miss Mike and all that he brought to the mentoring program.
The program is at a standstill right now. We are seeking to hire a new program director and as soon as we do this, the program will be up and running again. We are fortunate to have as the new principal at Audubon, Dr. Duane Davis, one of the members of the 100.
The Los Angeles Cares Mentoring Movement is the second program, I'm involved with. After the movement's founder, Susan Taylor launched this program, Barbara Perkins was right there! Barbara is the wife of retired L.A. County Fire Captain Stan Perkins.
Barbara currently serves as the L.A. Cares Circle's Executive Director. She selected me to serve as the Chair of the L.A. Circle. The L.A. Cares Circle recruits potential mentors to connect with various mentoring agencies and programs. The goal is to reach 1 million mentors nation wide through the Cares Circles. Right now there are 54 Cares Circles throughout the United States. Here in Los Angeles we are working toward recruiting people that want to make a difference in a young person's life. To become a mentor go to www.LACMM.org.
The crisis we find ourselves in today, is the lack of strong Black Male role model's for our young men to look up to and emulate. We have to fix this by encouraging our men to get involved in the life of a youngster and teach him how to grow up and become a man.
I'm always available to address this issue and welcome those that have positive input and solutions to this crisis. In the past few months 4 of our members have been promoted to the position of Battalion Chief. William McCloud, Roland Owens, Tony Lewis and most recently our Department Public Information Officer, Mike Brown.
I am very happy to see these brothers move up the ladder into the position of management. I am often asked, when will I promote to chief. My answer is the same. At this point and time, I am not interested in promoting to chief. I will gladly work for
and serve under these newly promoted brothers. But as of now, I have too many things that are important to me that I am currently involved in to move up.
Right now, mentoring is a big part of my life right now. As the chair of the 100 Black Men of Los Angeles' mentoring committee and the chair of the Los Angles Cares Mentoring Movement, I focus on connecting our vulnerable at risk African American young men with a male role model to help them succeed in life. I'll write more about this later.
I also feel this is not about me, it is about everyone else. I work hard sharing information locally and serving as an instructor at the Carl Holmes Executive Development Institute in Atlanta Ga. with my partner Kwame Cooper where we teach a number of leadership subjects.
So I again congratulate our new Batt. Chiefs. And hopefully we will see more Captains studying for the next step up. I'll be there to help you. 8/1/2009It has been a while since my last post. I ran into a friend this evening that is a real writer! She told me to keep blogging so I am and I will!
Much has occurred since I last wrote, but lets start with a major current event. The unfortunate arrest of Harvard Professor, Henry Gates. Call it what you want, but it was unnecessary! The man was in his own home minding his own business. He had not hurt or harmed anyone. Then a police officer appears. No matter what occurred, short of Mr. Gates having a gun, assaulting the officer or having illegal substances in plain view, there was no need for an arrest.
The officer called it "disorderly conduct". Which in translation means, talking back to a policeman! In the words of Colin Powell, "Cooler heads should have prevailed, it sounds like adult supervision was needed here!" I agree.
Now for President Obama. People are saying the President "weighed in on this". No he didn't. He was asked about it at his health care reform press conference. The President never offered an unsolicited opinion or say, lets talk about it. It was a question that came from a reporter. So the President said what most intelligent brothers would have said. Racial Profiling is an ongoing problem in this country. Blacks and Latinos are the targets and the Cambridge police dept. "acted stupidly" in this case. Because it comes from the President, who happens to be Black, its an issue. But lets look at this. Would a reporter ask George Bush about this case? or Ronald Reagan? No, because even the media knows this is an issue of racial profiling.
Had Gates been a white male, there would have been no arrest. Just words exchanged.
3/6/2009"History shouldn't be a mystery our story is real history not His-Story!" These are the words from Public Enemy in one of their early 1990 rap songs. Recently I have seen two articles now, asking the question, should Black History month be abolished.
This is actually a silly question. You would not ask any group of people to forget about their past. Black history is American History. Black History month is a time set a side for us to reflect on the great accomplishments of outstanding Black men and women over the years. If there was no Black history month or mention of Black history, one would ask, what contributions besides sports and entertainment have Black people made to the nation? If you can imagine a day without Black people, there would not be signal lights, gas masks, elevators, fire extinguishers and many other inventions that Black men and women invented to make life easier.
We would not know about the great men and women both Black and white that gave up their life for equal rights for all. We would not understand that this country was founded on the basis of segregation and sexism and the oppressed had to fight for their right to a society we now know as freedom.
Now that we have finally seen a Black Man obtain (legally) the highest post in the land, this is not the time to sit down and say we've made it. It is time to get up and stand up and keep this train moving. Barack Obama has proved that the lie many of us were told back in the day about being President can happen. This also means that hard work, perseverance, and faith can get us anywhere we choose to go.
So to those that ask if we still need Black history month, the answer is hell yes! And come February 1, 2010, you better be ready to learn something that you never knew before! 3/4/2009Retired Inglewood Firefighter/ Paramedic Gloria Altemus-Virgin passed away from a long battle with cancer. Glo was a solid soldier. Her toughness was her outer shell but she was a real sweetheart. In the fire service, a Black Woman has to work twice as hard as anyone else. Glo proved that she was more than deserving of the position in which she earned.
She was a founding member of the South Bay Black Firefighter Association and the Professional Black Women Firefighters of Southern California. She was an instructor at the James Shern Fire Academy and other locations throughout the Los Angeles area. And if Glo was still on the job when the County took over Inglewood, she would have been first in line to sign up for the Stentorians!
One night in 1993, I was a firefighter on Engine 38 in View Park. We were returning from a call when our Captain noticed a column of smoke standing tall in Inglewood. We chased it and arrived the same time as Gloria's engine. I pulled my hose line toward this fully involved house and I was joined by a short Inglewood firefighter. This firefighter was next to me the whole time with a high pitched voice yelling through his mask. After a minute or two I was getting annoyed by this firefighter's voice, so I looked deep into the mask of the firefighter to tell him to "shut up" and it was Gloria! I just started laughing. I gave her the nozzle and said go ahead Glo, get some! After the fire I laughed with her about it.
Glo was married to retired Fire Captain Marvin Virgin. A genuine nice guy. Marv took care of Glo and now she is resting peacefully now. Glo will now be in a better place with other soldiers like Crystal Golden-Jefferson, Leroy Wickliffe and Charles Razaaq. Three former Inglewood firefighters we lost.
Between Sunday and Tuesday of this week, we lost 3 soldiers! The first was LAPD Deputy Chief Kenny Garner, affectionately known as "Kenny G". Chief Garner was a friend and inspiration to many. He had been an LAPD officer for nearly 32 years. He was also a member of the 100 Black Men of LA.
It took me almost a week just to get the application to him but it really didn't bother me because I knew how busy Kenny was. I asked my son Andre, who is a Corrections Officer for the LAPD when was the last time he spoke to Chief Garner and he said last week. Andre told me that Chief Garner approached him to let him know that he was doing a great job. Kenny was a great collaborator and a solid manager. He will be missed by those that knew him.
The other two soldiers we lost were Retired Inglewood Firefighter/Paramedic Gloria Altemus-Virgin and Retired San Diego Fire Chief John Delotch, the first Black Fire Chief in the city of San Diego.
12/11/2008We need our Black Men to step up and get involved with becoming a mentor. There is no need to quote the statistics to show how bad the situation is. I can assure you that we are leading in every bad category.
Barbara Perkins, wife of retired Fire Captain Stan Perkins, is the chair of the Los Angeles Cares Circle, Mentoring Movement. I serve as her co-chair. We need more men to get involved.
Here is something interesting to ponder. The need to build a new prison is based on how well African American males do in the 4th grade! I have heard this from many different people. By the time a young man reaches the fourth grade, they start to explore different roads to travel.
In an effort to save our future, I urge you to become a mentor today. The 100 Black Men of Los Angeles has an outstanding mentor program that works with Audubon Middle School. Michael Ng is the program coordinator. Give Mike a call at 323-295-2700. Contact Barbara at the L.A. Cares website at www.lacmm.org.
Thank you ever so much! The museum is searching for individuals that are interested in participating as board members, volunteers and staff.
We are only seeking those that are in this for the love of history and feel the need to give back. We are not looking for "shirt wearers" or "ticket punchers" we have seen our share of these people over the years before.
We want dedicated and committed people that are wiling to work in an effort to see the museum prosper. Give us a call at 213-744-1730 if you would like to help.
Thank you, BB At this time, there is no comment from me on this matter. There is a pending lawsuit and the attorneys are speaking on behalf of all parties involved.
Peace, BB
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