08/29/2026
I’ve been taking a few hits lately.
Some of them are deserved.
Some of them are bu****it.
That comes with sticking your neck out.
If I’m going to put my name on something, talk publicly about EMS, question the way we do things, advocate for change, or occasionally kick a sacred cow square in the ass, then I have to accept that somebody is going to disagree with me.
That doesn’t bother me.
Legitimate criticism is useful.
Disagreement is useful.
Hell, sometimes the person telling you that you’re wrong is exactly the person you need to hear.
But somewhere along the way, we have confused criticism with contribution.
They are not the same thing.
And EMS has entirely too much mud being thrown by people standing on opposite sides of the same damn ditch.
Meanwhile, the ditch is still there.
That is what I want to change.
I don’t want everybody agreeing with me.
God help us if that ever happens. I’m not sure I want to live in a world where everybody thinks like I do. There probably wouldn’t be enough duct tape.
I want more people involved.
I want the paramedic with twenty-five years on the truck involved.
I want the EMT who got their license six months ago involved.
I want dispatchers, nurses, firefighters, law enforcement, physicians, administrators and educators involved.
And I want people who have never worn an EMS uniform involved.
Especially them.
Because EMS does not belong only to the people working on the ambulance.
It belongs to the communities depending on that ambulance.
If you live in rural Arkansas and dial 911 because your husband is having chest pain, EMS suddenly matters to you.
If your child is injured, it matters.
If your mother has a stroke forty miles from the nearest appropriate hospital, it damn sure matters.
Staffing matters.
Training matters.
Response times matter.
Equipment matters.
Medical direction matters.
Funding matters.
Retention matters.
And whether there will actually be a staffed ambulance available when somebody calls matters.
Those problems will not be solved by a handful of EMS people arguing among themselves while everybody else watches us sling mud like two hogs fighting over the shady side of the pen.
We need more people willing to stick their necks out.
Not necessarily people who agree with me.
People willing to participate.
Bring a different idea.
Challenge mine.
Write something.
Teach something.
Attend a meeting.
Ask your local officials questions.
Learn how EMS in your community actually works.
Support the people trying to improve it.
If you see a bad idea, oppose it and explain why.
If you have a better one, put it on the table.
And if somebody sticks their neck out and gets something wrong, correct them without trying to chop their damn head off.
Because if we punish everybody willing to speak, eventually only two groups remain:
The people afraid to say anything and the people who don’t give a damn anymore.
Neither one is going to fix EMS.
I have strong opinions. I know that surprises absolutely nobody who has spent more than eleven seconds on this page.
I will continue expressing them.
Sometimes I’ll be right.
Sometimes I’ll be wrong.
Sometimes somebody in these comments will change my mind.
That is exactly how this ought to work.
East Arkansas Paramedic was never supposed to be a place where I stand on a soapbox and everybody nods politely.
I want it to be one small place where we actually talk about EMS.
The good.
The bad.
The stupid.
The uncomfortable.
And most importantly, what we can do better.
Because EMS is facing problems that are bigger than any one paramedic, ambulance service, hospital, fire department, county, or page.
We can keep throwing mud.
Or we can start building something.
I know which one I would rather spend my time doing.
If you care about what happens when somebody calls 911, then you have a place in this conversation.
You do not need an EMS patch on your shoulder.
You just need to give a damn.
-- East Arkansas Paramedic
