By the end of National Preparedness Month, September 2006, www.ready.gov has some new graphics and a new video, but the same advice about nuclear threats. While assuring people that a nuclear attack is “less likely than others,” it simply says that “in order to limit the amount of radiation you are exposed to, think about shielding, distance and time.” But there's no chart of protection factors, no mention of the 7/10 rule, no instructions for building a Kearny Fallout Meter. So, it's up to us–to do, not just think!
A useful entry at ready.gov is a list of addresses and telephone numbers of emergency management departments in your state or locality. Additionally, you can find phone numbers of your local officials in the telephone directory. Phyllis Orient, a great grandmother, called the mayor's office in Tucson. She said she was watching Jericho and wondered where the shelters were in Tucson. Should we go to city hall? She was told to call back because the person who knows about these things was on vacation.
“I hope nothing happens before she gets back! Don't you think it would be good to have more than one knowledgeable person? Our mayor should know at least as much as the mayor on that TV program!”
Civil defense activists have assembled a core curriculum of essential information so that it could be rapidly disseminated. A press kit and self-education kit is posted at www.physiciansforcivildefense.org. Inform yourself; urge political candidates to become informed; let your local officials hear often from their constituents; encourage as many people as possible to link to this press kit; and call radio talk-show hosts. The 25 most influential hosts (with websites) are featured in the October 2006 issue of NewsMax. Send them email, but don't neglect the commentators on your local stations.
Radical Islamists have been making dire threats for a long time; high officials are beginning to take heed. On Yom Kippur, the police, even the park police, were out in force in Washington, D.C., and access to synagogues was heavily restricted. One resident reported that foot traffic near the White House was also more restricted than he had ever seen, even on 9/11. He claimed that surface-to-air missiles were deployed on the roof of the White House, along with snipers.
Some fear that Western civilization has never been so threatened since the second Muslim invasion of Europe was stopped at the Battle of Vienna on Sept 11-12, 1683, thanks to the timely arrival of Polish troops commanded by King John III Sobieski. Paradoxically, there is the possibility that death threats from radical Islamists could save the West from the self destruction described in John Burnham's book The Suicide of the West. Survival, however, is by no means assured. The West is “down to its last chance,” writes Tony Blankley in The West's Last Chance: Will We Win the Clash of Civilizations?
The survival of the United States as a nation may depend on whether or not millions of Americans perish needlessly from a nuclear attack because of a lack of basic knowledge.
FEMA confiscated critical emergency supplies sent by a private owner to aid New Orleans hospitals, and blocked delivery of an emergency communications unit and rubber rafts. It sent 1,000 volunteer firefighters to days of classes on sexual harassment and eventually had them distribute leaflets with FEMA's telephone number.
About 27% of the $1.3 billion that FEMA distributed in 20 of 313 declared disasters between 1999 and 2004 went to areas or individuals that suffered little or no damage.
Because effective action is so dependent on circumstances of time and place, wrote Nobel prize-winning economist Friedrich Hayek, “we must solve [the knowledge problem] by some form of decentralization.”
Arguably, more harm was done by FEMA's keeping other suppliers out than by its own bungled relief efforts. The Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, argues that the government role in disasters should be restricted to opening channels of trade, as by repairing transportation infrastructure, and protecting the property of suppliers and disaster victims (Cato Policy Analysis No. 573, July 19, 2006, www.cato.org).
It is quite possible than in an incident involving radiation, the chief government action may be to block entry into the area, assuring that targeted areas will be completely on their own, for an unknown length of time.
To feed 150 people a day, with an equipment investment of about $60, Steve Harris suggests five $12 waffle makers (see DDP Newsletter, July 2006). One or two people could prepare as much food, by weight, in 24 hours this way as they could by making biscuits in a small pizza oven. The latter costs about $1,800 and requires much more electricity.
DDP, 1601 N. Tucson Blvd. Suite 9, Tucson, AZ 85716, (520)325-2680, www.oism.org/ddp