I thought for a long time about starting this website and an even longer time ruminating over what I should write about first. There are a lot of topics that I want to write about, but once I finally got the ball rolling I realized that the first post needed to be an introduction to myself and the purpose behind the website as a whole. Nothing flashy, rather, a quick primer that gives you an idea of the person behind this site and what you can expect from Code 3 Red Lights moving forward.
For a while, I bantered with the idea of remaining anonymous, it seemed like the path to take in a career field that isn’t exactly friendly to anyone who even remotely identifies as anything left of center. However, the more I thought about it the more I realized I needed to own this site and my role in it. My political views aren’t anything to be ashamed of and I’m not about to hide behind the facade of anonymity. I don’t harbor any belief that this site will be a big deal, maybe it will get a few readers now and then, but mainly it will be a place for me to put out detailed thoughts on Paramedicine. But, I’m getting ahead of myself, back to the introduction.
My name is Bill Thompson, I am a Critical Care Paramedic, husband, father, and Communist. I live in the lovely state of Wisconsin (I legitimately love living here despite the politics). I’m not a lifelong Communist, my journey to this point has been long, fraught with many changes, and entirely my own. I’ve been in the Marxist world for a few years now, but it wasn’t until the past couple of years that I realized Communism spoke to me the most. In terms of my career, I have been in Paramedicine for 14 years and counting. I’ve moved up the ranks from First Responder-Defibrillator to Critical Care Paramedic, and I’ve avoided the fire-side the whole time as that never appealed to me. I do what I do because I love medicine and the freedom that comes from providing patient care in Paramedicine (at some point I will write about why I utilize the term Paramedicine to describe the field as opposed to the more well-known emergency medical services or EMS). My time in my career of choice has led to me making a very good living for myself, entering the realm of education, and becoming a Supervisor.
I love Paramedicine and I am passionate about the world we live in, especially how the world I see interacts with my political beliefs. My time as a clinician has allowed me to see that the healthcare system in America isn’t broken, rather it is working just as intended and people suffer as a result. As I’ve aged I realized I needed somewhere to put down all my thoughts about the field of Paramedicine and to look at it from a decidedly Communist viewpoint. I have a lot of thoughts about the field of Paramedicine, ranging from the clinical to the political. At the same time, I love to write, and thus Code 3 Red Lights was born.
This website will serve as a vessel for my writing, a place where I will write about elements of Paramedicine and when appropriate I will relay how being a Communist impacts how I view said elements. I’m not about to go back on social media to promote the site, I’ve found I no longer have the stomach for that sort of grind. But, at minimum once a month, if everything goes according to plan, I’ll drop a post about some topic within Paramedicine that I have some thoughts about. I’m grateful for anyone who chooses to read what I have to say, and for those who take issue with what I have to say, I welcome any and all feedback, albeit I won’t tolerate hate or abuse speech of any type. Thanks for checking out the beginning of this journey!
Lead image courtesy of Pedro Carvalho
