The Lady's Not For Burning

Last night there were two items in the local paper that caught my eye. The first told us that Grand Rapids, Michigan, was laying off twenty-two firefighters, effective midnight. This would save the strapped city about nine million dollars.
It reduces the city’s fire fighting force about ten percent. They’ll go from 206 firemen (for a city of approximately 175,000 souls to 184. That’s a meaningful drop in fire protection. It leaves you wondering—at what point do insurance companies take note of the drop?
There’s very little question that the city had no choice. Its general budget is millions more in the hole, state unemployment is at more than 15%; Detroit is close to 30%. The money for more firemen is unlikely to come out of anybody’s hat. Maybe Obama will come down the chimney with new stimulus money; maybe not.
Now comes the second article. No doubt it is total coincidence (and may actually be) but it is the kind of coincidence the “Godfather” would not have liked. When the old fire chief retired not long ago, a female battalion commander was made acting chief.
The same day the department lost 10% of its manpower, they gave Laura Knapp the job of being Grand Rapid’s first female fire chief. (Nobody mentioned what she’s earning—compared to chiefs in other cities of comparable size. What do you bet … .)
So a woman is handed the job of chief of a department that has been given an almost impossible job—do the same, or even more, with less.
The same thing has been going on in private industry for years—but your house isn’t liable to burn down if General Electric or GM falls behind on its paperwork. I guess, if you live in Grand Rapids you pray that more than three major fires won’t break out at the same time.
The laid off guys probably won’t pitch in to help. The same article said they were looking for other jobs—kids to feed, that sort of thing. When I was a kid I lived in a small suburb that had stayed with a small volunteer fire department. One Christmas day a wealthy lawyer stood and watched as his expensive home burned down. He had the clout—and the money existed—to put in a full time, professional department within a year.
That kind of instant, drastic improvement isn’t likely to happen in Grand Rapids this year. We are sailing into waters that no living American has experienced—where there actually is a REAL SHORTAGE of money. And Laura Knapp gets to take the first shift.
If something really goes to smash under her watch, will it all be her fault? Will there be a few smug or even angry whispers that a woman simply wasn’t up to the job? Great opportunity for Knapp to “prove” it, isn’t it?
Jennifer Granholm, Governor of Michigan since 2003, would probably feel for Knapp. Democrat Granholm replaced Republican John Engler who slashed taxes, spent rainy day funds, did no maintenance on infrastructure and walked away looking wonderful.
She just happened to be standing there when the roof fell in. (Rather like Coolidge and Hoover.) For the first few years as the auto industry merely teetered, she had a lot of people’s sympathy. She even won re-election in 2006 against a Republican she cleverly accused of creating jobs in China—never letting him make the point that creating those jobs was the ONLY way he could save 4,000 Michigan jobs—making products to export to China. Fearful Michiganders, hearing only the word “China”, voted her back in.
Now the roof and the walls have caved in on her. (To use an analogy for Knapp, now there’s a really, really BIG fire—and fewer firemen.) GM and Chrysler have gone bust. Their sales still aren’t back to where they can pay Michigan’s freight, and never will be.
By now everybody knows it’s all Granholm’s fault. See? She destroyed the real estate market, nearly broke the American financial structure and, for good measure, singlehandedly extended the war in Afghanistan. All by herself! See what happens when you put women in charge?
Good luck to Laura Knapp.