Is it really important? Yes, it is. One features article, one book, one blog after the next bemoans the "crisis" of masculinity. Every rampage shooting by a young white male breeds a mountain of commentary about rudderless young men who've lost their way in the new matriarchy. Features writers cluck their tongues and insist that young men need to find new ways to be useful since women don't need them anymore. Our sons are being raised in a society where it is acceptable to insist that masculinity is terribly flawed and needs to be rebuilt, but it is not acceptable to point out anything positive about masculinity.

Indeed, no one should ignore the problems we've created for our sons, but damn it, our sons need to hear that masculinity is, and should be, a force for good, and that young men like these 19 firefighters embody much of what is admirable about men. Testosterone is not poison, and maleness is not a sickness.

Our sons need to stop being told they are flawed because they are boys. We owe that to them, and to our daughters. So, yes, damn it, its important to underscore the fact that all 19 victims were fireMEN, not just firefighters.