I love you people, I really do. You’re always the funniest, smartest, most appealingly off-center bunch on a municipal payroll. My wife even suggests that you tend to be better looking than cops.

And I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again — you can earn a year’s pay in one horrible night.

But don’t do this. Don’t put a lasting stain on a fine tradition. Don’t let this showdown with the city lead you to do something that insults the very thing you’re supposed to stand for.

If you do this, if you use the picket line to screw up a statewide terrorism drill, you lose. You lose credibility and respect and professional standing. You come across as petty and arrogant, even childish. You are having a snit, and your snit is dangerous.

I remember when firefighters picketed at the Biltmore hotel in Providence in September 2004 when then vice presidential candidate John Edwards was due to appear.

Edwards did not cross the picket line. He got no farther than the airport. It was one of those times when union action worked, when it focused public attention on the issues keeping the firefighters from a contract with the city. And it did no harm. In fact, many of those who had paid serious bucks to hear Edwards emerged from the Biltmore to express their support for the firefighters.

Not this time. This time, you’re doing harm. This time, you’re getting in the way of making the state safer, more prepared. This time, you’re dishonoring firefighting. You appear to be taking a shot because you can, not because it furthers your cause.

The leadership of the firefighters union in Providence has jumped the tracks. It is difficult to believe its membership is solidly behind it. It is difficult to believe that people who embrace their work so completely would support an action that flies in the face of who they are and what they are about.

The homeland security drill, scheduled for Sunday and financed by a $50,000 federal grant, has been planned for six months. It is based on a terrorist attack on the Rhode Island Convention Center.

Several police and fire departments and hospitals are due to take part in the drill. It is the first drill of this magnitude in Rhode Island — or it would be if firefighters didn’t picket. But the picket line means other departments in the state won’t take part. The drill will have to be scaled back, provide less information on what needs to be done should the real thing happen.

Union president Paul Doughty, asked for justification for the picket line, has been quoted as saying, “How can we take care of you if you won’t take care of us?”

Please. Don’t be cute. That kind of meaningless drivel does nothing to explain or justify what amounts to an attempt to undermine public safety.

Sunday’s drill is too important to be sacrificed to clever, empty phrases.

This one is going to stick to the firefighters union for a long time. It will be cited as an example of a union that lost its way and let long-standing grievances lead to a dumb and dangerous slap at the city union members are supposed to protect. It is a gift to anyone who sits on the other side of the bargaining table.

It is also an insult to hundreds of people who are very good at what they do.

From now on, perhaps, union meetings can open with a prayer, a prayer that a real attack similar to the one acted out on Sunday never happens.

And while heads are bowed, perhaps an added heavenly plea would be in order — that no one dies for lack of proper preparation.

bkerr@projo.com