The Luxury of Being Pejorative

I do not believe Professional Emergency Managers get to be contemptuous of others. And least not in our EM work.

Google Gemini AI generated from phrase ‘generate a picture of a poet, politician and a priest’

April 6, 2025

By Michael Prasad, Senior Research Analyst

Poets, priests — and as we expected — politicians get to pontificate on policies and procedures, prioritizing prizes, penance or even profits above people.

It is when their words and deeds are derogatory or denigrate humans, as professional Emergency Management leaders, we must speak out against those pejorative actions.

Making the distinction between what we ourselves say online to each other and to the public; and what we do in support of our communities can be a challenge for those who must work with — or worse, report to — those who act pejoratively. I believe we are in a profession where we do not dictate whether any individual can thrive and succeed but rather instead, we have roles where we help that same individual survive and stay alive.

Our constituents — who are our clients — are not any position to qualify for merit-based assistance. Nor should they be.

This goes to my prior Substack blog paid subscriber post about morals versus ethics. And more importantly, it is at the heart of the…