Hi,

“I’m from the government and I’m here to help you!” Instead of reassuring us of the many ways our government is helping to keep us safe from internal and external threats, these words strike fear in the hearts and minds of most Americans who are experiencing and/or reading about just how woefully unprepared our government agencies are to aid us. Our government officials need to tell us specifically what is being done to protect us by providing concrete details we can see, touch, and feel instead of giving us the same regurgitated rhetoric and hyperbole. Our safety isn’t about winning votes or saving face – it’s about saving lives. A good place to start is in the area of information sharing. Perhaps a course in risk communications should become a necessary requirement for all politicians.

All heads of protective agencies should be able to tell us who is responsible for the various aspects of our safety and how the funding formulas are devised, implemented, and carried out. Too often our safety is handled – or mishandled – disproportionately based on whether it is a republican or democratic issue. As Americans we don’t care who gets the credit or the blame; we want to feel safe and be safe, and know that funding decisions are responsibly being made based on sound policy thinking, and not on whether it’s a red or a blue state, or whether the political leadership is willing to “play ball” on some other unrelated issue.

Our government tells us we need to be prepared for catastrophes or terrorist attacks, but doesn’t provide clear and easily understandable instruction in what can or should be done. Organizational charts and policies aren’t enough if we don’t know what they are or what is involved, or who is responsible for carrying out the instructions. In order to get safely to its destination, an airplane needs a crew to pilot the plane, but it also requires air traffic controllers to help route it, as well as others to perform vital jobs ensuring a safe flight. Failing to perform just one vital step can prove to be catastrophic. Right now we have an airplane hurtling through the air at 350 miles per hour with no pilot or crew.

Someone needs to step up and give us information we can use that is accessible by the average citizen. Communicating risks to the citizens isn’t being adequately done because there is no budget item that specifically addresses this issue. Giving local communities the proper tools to adequately protect their citizens is a start. Providing adequate funding for advertising and safety drills would be better. A best case scenario would be mandatory pullout sections in every telephone directory in America that has an easily usable guide to personal safety, complete with guidelines, instructions, organizational charts, and telephone numbers. What good does it do to have a list of telephone numbers to call after the fact? That’s sort of like implementing a multi-billion dollar fire prevention program and expecting the national death rate from fires to go down based exclusively upon the availability of a toll free telephone number one can call in the event of a fire.

As citizens we have every right to know what our government is doing to protect us. We don’t have to know every detail of sensitive national security information. But there does need to be an equitable balance that at least provides us with understandable disaster plans and organizational charts. If we don’t know who’s running the show, how are we to know with any degree of certainty that anyone is in charge? And if no one is in charge and we are fending for ourselves, what exactly are we spending all this money on, anyway?

Your comments are welcome!

Since life has no reset button….tune into this blog and to our website daily. Safe Living, Yovette Mumford

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