dispatches from the new world of work

Civil Defense, Circa 2008: An Urgent and Monumental Management Task

Janet Napolitano, assuming confirmation, will have her hands full as our third chief of homeland security. That was made even more clear with the publication yesterday of the report of the Commission on the Prevention of WMD Proliferation and Terrorism. In short, the report virtually promised a major WMD attack on the U.S. homeland within the next five years, by 2013—and said that deaths in the hundreds of thousands could well be the tally.

If history is a teacher, DHS will work like hell to prevent the catastrophe—and beef up the capabilities of first responders. I'd hardly shortchange those two tasks, particularly the first, but I think that no-bullshit training and organizing of you and me and our neighbors in Civil Defense, not unlike World War II practices, should share top billing. If a WMD, nuclear or biological, kills hundreds of thousands, the entire nation will go nuts. (Rightly so.) So how do the man or woman on the street and our community prepare for it and deal with it? My father, too old for the draft in WWII, was a Civil Defense air warden leader within a well-organized schema—one of my favorite souvenirs from him was an elaborate guide showing the shapes of German bombers that might make it to our shores. (A few German subs did make shore not so far away.) He was a local big cheese in a highly developed and well-trained civilian network—needless to say, the British version of this was more elaborate by orders of magnitude, as the odds were high (very high!) of an invasion of their homeland.

Well, if the shit is going to hit the fan, and a sane person would conclude that the odds of a shit-covered fan are not all that low, you and I should be exceptionally well trained and exceptionally well organized to be part of the solution, a big part, rather than part of the problem. (Did you watch any of the short-lived TV series Jericho—not a pretty sight, and not necessarily all that far out.) My entire "training" since 9/11 has amounted to half listening to airport announcements telling me to look out for suspicious things. That is a pathetic request for my involvement. And I'll bet things don't change much—or at all.

My bottom line, and others have said this, is that I, and I suspect you, stand ready for my country to ask much of me in defending our homeland—if only President-elect Obama or DHS Secretary-designate Napolitano bother to ask.

So what are you and I going to do about it? (Anybody have Governor Napolitano's private cellphone #?)

Tom Peters posted this on 12/03/08.

Comments

My British parents kept their WWII gas-masks at the ready until the rubber disintegrated, and there was an Anderson air-raid shelter in their back garden until they died. "Be prepared!" was their motto. Maybe we should all get new anti-biological-masks ....

Posted by Mike L. at December 3, 2008 4:35 PM

Here are a few links on my blog to some resources that are, at least, good starting places.

http://www.mokurendojo.com/2008/12/this-is-great-post-on-homeland.html

Posted by Patrick Parker at December 3, 2008 6:57 PM

Tom....

The Obama Transition Team is open and transparent so all anyone of you has to do is to contact them by going to their website or by a snail mail letter (I have done both) and you can input all you want on Home Security issues - see below my email/letter of invitation to contribute to the Health Care Policy issues and debate.

I have already made inputs to Rahm Emanuel on a new design for White House policy development and implementation process - my suggestions are directed at keeping the locals/communities in the loop (in policy development and implementation process) as they did during their Campaign. Of course I want to bring the White House into the C21st as a place to work. This transition team is on song with that objective.. Also I have made inputs on Energy and Climate Change policy issues.

Recently received is my invitation to "stay involved" in the open access democratic process of policy debate now being played out by the Obama-Biden Transition Team....

Obama-Biden Transition Team

Dear Richard,

Transparency and engagement are priorities for the Obama-Biden Transition Project. Our success depends on not only opening up a process that has historically been inaccessible to most Americans, but also encouraging citizen participation.

Last week, we took an important step towards these goals by asking the public to participate in a discussion about health care on our website.

The result was fantastic. Started by a question from our Health Policy Team, thousands of comments poured in over a few days. Some people answered the initial question, but others engaged with one another debating and developing new ideas and approaches to health care reform.

Members of our Health Policy Team, including former Senator Tom Daschle, read through these comments over Thanksgiving weekend.

Yesterday, they sat down to record a special video response. Watch it and join the discussion:

Watch the video

This is just the beginning. These discussions are a valuable resource for Transition staff and an important way to ensure that everyone has a voice in the process.

Thank you,

John

John D. Podesta
Co-Chair
Obama-Biden Transition Project

Technology is changing the world - the challenge now is for the American people (together with some enthusiastic Aussies??) to become an active part of this new US Administration....

Tom, I truly believe that there is "nothing to fear but fear itself"... as the Obama-Biden Team takes over the Oval Office at the White House....

Richard.

Posted by Richard Lipscombe at December 3, 2008 6:59 PM

Tom (and anyone else interested),

One way to improve your readiness, and that of your community, is joining your local Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT). We train in basic disaster response skills, such as fire safety, light search and rescue, team organization, and disaster medical operations.

See www.citizencorps.gov/cert/
for details.

Posted by Robert Dagnall at December 4, 2008 7:55 PM

There is an inaccuracy here.
The attack in the next five years was not predicted to be within the United States. It was predicted to happen somewhere in the world.

Posted by zed at December 6, 2008 7:46 PM

real viagra cheap Zed, I've seen both versions.

Posted by tom peters at December 8, 2008 8:59 AM

Check out Sen Bob Graham's video - its on youtube.
He made the official announcement and he said the world,
not the US specifically.

Posted by zed at December 8, 2008 8:25 PM