Chertoff makes a valid point about personal disaster preparedness being a matter of civic duty. If I have the ability to take care of myself but don't, and the people who need to take care of the truly helpless have to slow down and save my bacon first, I've been a bad neighbor, bad citizen and all-around selfish lout. I was somewhat amused by the elementary-schools official who balked at the idea of using students to help spread the word:
But Dr. Vincent Ferrandino, executive director of the National Association of Elementary School Principals, cautioned against using the schools as messenger except "when it's absolutely necessary, and we consider it an issue of national importance."
"Schools need to be a place where important issues are discussed," Ferrandino said. "But we need to be careful that we don't use the schools constantly for everybody's latest and greatest new idea."
They've been sending the kiddies home for years full of propaganda about global warming and recycling and diversity and second-hand smoke and all other kinds of leftist, collectivist claptrap. Now, they don't want to use them to help convey the commonsense message of preparing for the unexpected?
