About Me
- Name: Sagepaper
- Location: United States
An only child and service-brat, I was born in Panama. We lived on Indian Reservations when I was two to four-and-a-half -- crucial years for social development. Culturally, I am a mixed-up White Eyes from Mescalero. I began college at fifteen, enjoying a luxurious seven years of rigorous liberal arts education. Since graduating with a B.A. in Psychology, I have avidly read non-fiction, adding enormously to my formal education. Disabled by Tourette's Syndrome and other conditions, I live in Atlanta's suburbia. My father and husband are both physicians, and share a consulting business. (I am very proud of what they do, but I mention their occupations because people cannot seem to move to another small-talk topic if I simply say I am disabled. They must be told an occupation, and will start asking about family members to get one.)
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Herein find essays, musings, Haiku, and other traditional poetry.
Tuesday, June 14, 2005
Information: A Casualty of War of the Worlds
I am looking forward to seeing the movie, War of the Worlds. I like the movie genre. I am interested in seeing how they handle the story line for it and the special effects. I hear the theme of the plot is more about family values than about aliens. It could be good.
I am becoming increasingly agitated about all the pre-screen publicity, though. I am deeply angered by our ancestors who were the first to hear the Halloween special. I am disturbed that subsequent generations of Americans have been unable to shake the reputation of the American public since that horrid event.
Unfortunately, the US government has long viewed "panicking the public" as a dire threat to domestic security. It is true that a panicked public is a danger to itself. Unfortunately, so too is an ignorant public.
Ever since War of the Worlds first demonstrated to governments, State, Local, and Federal, the horror of giving Americans disturbing news, they have been reluctant to speak boldly of non-fiction threats. A whole culture of information suppression and control has been born of the ridiculous behavior of those neaderthals who preceded us as citizens. The sad thing is, the government has spawned endless conspiracy theories and public mistrust that are untrue and unwarranted. The problem is some small thing they withheld from the public, for its own good, comes to light. Conspiracy theorists don't see a small thing: they see the tip of an iceberg.
To let you know how far this has gone, I give you the example of our regional National Weather Service's operations. They are so afraid of false alarms, which would just panic the public, that they have let precious minutes go by before being sure enough to warn. Our warning comes so late, and at an unacceptable cost in lives, that counties in our metropolitan area have shouldered the expense of putting up air raid sirens, and of supporting their own county spotting groups. The County Emergency Management of these counties has, on at least two occasions, sounded the air raid sirens, correctly, before NOAA issued a warning. Why? War of the Worlds.
That legacy has led to more government secrecy than we need. People in government are not conspirators. I hate to say this, but the government employees are of neither the poor character, nor the high caliber, to conspire. In fact, as we have seen after September 11, 2001, they cannot even coordinate visa information, let alone conspire against the American people. We lack the institutional infrastructure for government to conspire against the public. The fully integrated KGB has had that infrastructure, but we do not.
I have had a good look into the machinery of state and local emergency management agencies. They almost cannot hold a plenary meeting without mentioning the need to avoid panicking the public. They risk our lives by trying to save us from ourselves. The upshot is usually that they don't want to risk panicking us over false alarms. Many emergency situations unfold from 0-10 in magnitude. Most events never get anywhere near ten.
So, they have a point. Why bother us with something that went all the way to seven before they neutralized it? The problem is, they can't conspire. The news will come out that there was an incident. Then people wonder, rightly, "Just when were you thinking to mention this?" Public anger only fuels the reluctance to let anything out unnecessarily. Government employees, by and large, are less confrontational than the general population. If you yell at them they wither inside, while doing their best to handle the situation.
So, too many people would die if they waited until ten to sound the alarm. No one wants that. But no one wants an agitated public, especially not a dangerously panicked one. So they don't tell us about anything until it's, well, time to panic.
We have thrice proven our government wrong about their fears of public panic. First, their was Pearl Harbor. Being attacked out of the blue did not panic us. Then, there was Three Mile Island. A serious nuclear malfunction in a populated part of the country did not cause panic. Most recently, we had the attacks of September 11, 2001. The public did not panic.
It is time to stop treating us like we suffer from a mass panic disorder. Americans are actually good at taking it on the chin. Also, we have a far more educated population than we had when War of the Worlds aired that fateful night. More recent generations of Americans need to move our country to greater transparency. I am pleased to see that happening quite a bit. For example, many people now know what "shelter-in-place" means, and are more likely to follow that instruction.
With the unconventional War on Terror, and Al Quaida's war on America, we must each be prepared to be a first responder, or at least a survivor. We need to know what we are up against, and what to do to be effective. We have made progress. Shortly after September 11, 2001, we were told that intelligence indicated there might be an attack in Boston, but nothing more was known. Neither the citizens of Boston, nor their compatriots throughout the nation, panicked.
May the legacy of War of the Worlds finally rest in peace. I do hope the movie is good! It looks like fun.
I am becoming increasingly agitated about all the pre-screen publicity, though. I am deeply angered by our ancestors who were the first to hear the Halloween special. I am disturbed that subsequent generations of Americans have been unable to shake the reputation of the American public since that horrid event.
Unfortunately, the US government has long viewed "panicking the public" as a dire threat to domestic security. It is true that a panicked public is a danger to itself. Unfortunately, so too is an ignorant public.
Ever since War of the Worlds first demonstrated to governments, State, Local, and Federal, the horror of giving Americans disturbing news, they have been reluctant to speak boldly of non-fiction threats. A whole culture of information suppression and control has been born of the ridiculous behavior of those neaderthals who preceded us as citizens. The sad thing is, the government has spawned endless conspiracy theories and public mistrust that are untrue and unwarranted. The problem is some small thing they withheld from the public, for its own good, comes to light. Conspiracy theorists don't see a small thing: they see the tip of an iceberg.
To let you know how far this has gone, I give you the example of our regional National Weather Service's operations. They are so afraid of false alarms, which would just panic the public, that they have let precious minutes go by before being sure enough to warn. Our warning comes so late, and at an unacceptable cost in lives, that counties in our metropolitan area have shouldered the expense of putting up air raid sirens, and of supporting their own county spotting groups. The County Emergency Management of these counties has, on at least two occasions, sounded the air raid sirens, correctly, before NOAA issued a warning. Why? War of the Worlds.
That legacy has led to more government secrecy than we need. People in government are not conspirators. I hate to say this, but the government employees are of neither the poor character, nor the high caliber, to conspire. In fact, as we have seen after September 11, 2001, they cannot even coordinate visa information, let alone conspire against the American people. We lack the institutional infrastructure for government to conspire against the public. The fully integrated KGB has had that infrastructure, but we do not.
I have had a good look into the machinery of state and local emergency management agencies. They almost cannot hold a plenary meeting without mentioning the need to avoid panicking the public. They risk our lives by trying to save us from ourselves. The upshot is usually that they don't want to risk panicking us over false alarms. Many emergency situations unfold from 0-10 in magnitude. Most events never get anywhere near ten.
So, they have a point. Why bother us with something that went all the way to seven before they neutralized it? The problem is, they can't conspire. The news will come out that there was an incident. Then people wonder, rightly, "Just when were you thinking to mention this?" Public anger only fuels the reluctance to let anything out unnecessarily. Government employees, by and large, are less confrontational than the general population. If you yell at them they wither inside, while doing their best to handle the situation.
So, too many people would die if they waited until ten to sound the alarm. No one wants that. But no one wants an agitated public, especially not a dangerously panicked one. So they don't tell us about anything until it's, well, time to panic.
We have thrice proven our government wrong about their fears of public panic. First, their was Pearl Harbor. Being attacked out of the blue did not panic us. Then, there was Three Mile Island. A serious nuclear malfunction in a populated part of the country did not cause panic. Most recently, we had the attacks of September 11, 2001. The public did not panic.
It is time to stop treating us like we suffer from a mass panic disorder. Americans are actually good at taking it on the chin. Also, we have a far more educated population than we had when War of the Worlds aired that fateful night. More recent generations of Americans need to move our country to greater transparency. I am pleased to see that happening quite a bit. For example, many people now know what "shelter-in-place" means, and are more likely to follow that instruction.
With the unconventional War on Terror, and Al Quaida's war on America, we must each be prepared to be a first responder, or at least a survivor. We need to know what we are up against, and what to do to be effective. We have made progress. Shortly after September 11, 2001, we were told that intelligence indicated there might be an attack in Boston, but nothing more was known. Neither the citizens of Boston, nor their compatriots throughout the nation, panicked.
May the legacy of War of the Worlds finally rest in peace. I do hope the movie is good! It looks like fun.
Posted by: Sagepaper / 10:40 PM 
