National Preparedness Month is this September. According to the Department of Homeland Security, it is an effort to “encourage Americans to prepare for emergencies in their homes, businesses and schools.”
“Every American has a personal responsibility to ensure that their family is prepared for the unexpected,” said Undersecretary for Preparedness George Foresman. “Through this effort, the Department of Homeland Security and the National Preparedness Month Coalition will encourage all Americans to be ready before emergencies happen.”
And you won’t believe the sorts of activities they have planned.
So what exactly is the department planning?
Among other things, promoting responsible dog ownership.
An e-mail sent from the Citizen Corps to state coordinators says that “112 national organizations and more than 198 regional, state and local groups have joined this important effort.”
But the recruiting for this “non-event,” as homeland security strategist W. David Stephenson called it, is running a bit slow this month. “There are currently 49 events planned for National Preparedness Month,” the e-mail continued. “Last year we had over 430 events, so let’s get those numbers up!”
One such event is the Farmers’ Market Concert Series in Uniontown, Pa.
And another is the American Kennel Club’s Responsible Dog Ownership Day.
“We encourage you to hold a community event that publicly promotes responsible dog ownership during the month of September,” the Citizen Corps e-mail said. And if you do, you “will receive a resource-filled packet including posters, balloons, brochures, sample press releases and other materials to assist you in ensuring your event’s success.”
Hat tip to William Arkin of theWashington Post, who called Homeland Security “the most useless and hopeless entity of the United States government.”
“Your tax dollars at work,” he wrote. If only this could be called work.
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Karl Marx would love the popular moves among politicians in various state governments and the federal government to ban so-called "junk" food in schools, and to "put healthy food in" convenience stores and on the tables of those they define as poor. It's a very elitist and arrogant mindset that promotes this ideology, and it needs to be addressed.
Ultimately, the war supporters in Congress prevailed in the vote on the resolution. Still, the vote was significant because it places every member of Congress on the record as supporting or not supporting the unconstitutional, costly, violent occupation of a country that never attacked us. This vote should serve as an important reminder to the American people of where their representatives really stand when it comes to policing the world, empire building, and war.
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Kevin Fields
Jul 31, 2006
Hey give them some credit. FEMA took a lot of shit last year because they couldn’t dedicate resources to abandonded pets in New Orleans. It forced hurricane victims to choose between saving a loved member of their family or saving themselves. Perhaps we could do a little better if pet owners had better information and preparedness.
It’s gotta be better than advocating duct tape in the event of biological warfare, anyhow.
Michael Hampton
Jul 31, 2006
Yes, but the guy who came up with the duct tape idea is now running FEMA.
Dana Hanley
Aug 01, 2006
I just wouldn’t know what to do if the state didn’t tell me. A couple of years ago we had pretty nasty tornados go through. They completely levelled a neighboring town. The sirens didn’t even go off. I don’t know how we managed to get to the neighbor’s basement without a personal call from the governor. Or how we managed to find food, water and shelter for our ENTIRE town BEFORE the Red Cross arrived.
And those evil profit mongering businesses….Walmart brought out more water than we knew what to do with, backpacks for the kids and a bunch of candy bars. Burger King fed us. There were actually several offers of assistance, but we had to ask them to stop. And not one of them included it in any ad campaign…
Michael Hampton
Aug 01, 2006
And, if I’m not mistaken, FEMA never showed up. They pulled the same thing not far from here last year.
Jason
Aug 01, 2006
I think September is National “Let’s all boost Duct Tape Sales” month.
Dana
Aug 01, 2006
I don’t know if I would have wanted them here. They probably would have herded us into some substandard shelter to prevent us from doing something like drinking that black sludge coming from the faucet and then we’d have gone hungry with the packs of toothbrushes and deoderant and crosswords the red cross handed out.
Of course, it wasn’t anything like Katrina…the nearest undamaged town was all of 20 minutes away.
Anonymous
Aug 21, 2007
So, are you saying national preparedness nmonth is a bad idea or just how homeland security handles it. What are ou doing to help your family and community ve prepared. We need more people activly contibuting to imporvement and less government waste or anti-government retoric. Do something constructive instead of point out others faults.