During the time that I have covered the topic of citizen emergency preparedness, one of the most surprising things I’ve found is that there is no major elected official who has taken the lead on the issue.
It’s surprising for a number of reasons: natural disasters and terrorism dominate the headlines and will continue to for the foreseeable future; citizen preparedness is pretty much unassailable, bipartisan, patriotic and community-building topic; and even the smallest interest in Washington has at least one political champion (but not public preparedness). And, with much to do, there is a great opportunity to have a positive policy and political impact.
Yet, there is no elected official who has taken the lead on the issue which is one of the reasons why the nation still has not made appropriate progress on it. Citizen preparedness requires some political leader who will make sure it is not ignored in the legislative process as it has been to date. In fact, I would argue the lack of political leadership is one reason why citizen preparedness has not received requisite attention from the government, the media and the public.
So, is there any elected official is interested in the job? Or, do readers have any ideas of who should do it?
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