Be vigilant and be aware. Never take things for granted, and never let yourself believe that “It can’t happen to us”.

We will NEVER forget.

Are you prepared?

This is the question that NPM asks. It also asks that employers, civic groups, homeowners, agencies, webmasters, and anyone that has the ability to play a role in educating and teaching about NPM to help spread the word and to play their part in National Preparedness Month.

A simple way to find out if you are prepared is to ask yourself a few easy questions.

1. No matter where you are, do you have a soft plan of action in mind for a disaster?
2. Do you and your family have a plan in place at home? Even such things as Home Disaster Kits, and a well thought out escape route or route to safety.
3. Does your employer have a plan in place, and are you and your co-workers familiar with the plan?
4. Is your important information preserved? Think of fire safe boxes, or even backing up computer files.
5. What would happen at this instant, if a disaster should happen in your area?

Being prepared is the most crucial step in surviving a disaster. This September, let’s all take every step possible to prepare ourselves for the event of a disaster striking in our area.

What can you do?

If you would like more information on National Disaster Preparedness Month, please go to the official Ready Campaign website. Become a member of the NPM Coalition, and help to do your part in aiding FEMA in their campaign to educate everyone about NPM. Go Here to Become a Member.

Want to help by sharing some of your ideas and actions with us? Leave a comment!!

The food was nothing short of spectacular, and the shopping in the area was designed to bring out the child in any adult. I had my first Po’ boy sandwich on that trip and I also was tempted to try the popular crawfish cuisines, but the Indiana country boy in me said “no”.

My second time in New Orleans was three years ago. Having been less than just two years after the hurricane, the results of the devastation were still very evident. There was still mud left over from the flood waters. Condemned buildings, still waiting on insurance claim settlements, were still standing all over the city and surrounding areas. A few businesses were open and seemed to be thriving, but many were closed up. Even if you had never heard of Katrina, you could not help but know that something disastrous had recently happened.

I remember my wife noting that there appeared to be an extremely high amount of homeless people in the city. Poverty seemed to be the norm, rather than the exception. The streets were home to countless construction and demolition vehicles, and the semi-trucks were making continuous trips in with building supplies.

In the aftermath of the storm, many people moved away from New Orleans. Much of the normal housing and commerce revenue had been lost with this outflow of population, and the city struggled to rebuild its economy. My wife and I had discussions over the rebuilding process. We wondered how they would ever make a complete reform. To us, it seemed unrealistic for the area to make a full comeback. I mean, why anyone would move back there after such devastation is something that confused me. Why rebuild a home in an area that could very easily be destroyed during any upcoming hurricane season.

A City Returning to Normal

Earlier this summer my wife and I, along with my parents, made a trip down to Slidell and the New Orleans area. We were scoping out possible campgrounds that we could use as a destination for an upcoming trip in our RV. While in route, it dawned on me that the question I had pondered only a couple of years before, could be asked of me now. “Why go there, if the area is in ruin and a storm could pass through with such destruction?” It was then that I had an answer for my own questions.

New Orleans is a place of festivity. It is a place of a carnival atmosphere, and a place to celebrate any time of year. It is a place that even the residents enjoy life and giving up just because of a little ole’ storm is certainly something that does not fit the profile.

As we drove through New Orleans on this trip, I was stunned by what I saw. It was the same city I had remembered from my trip 8 years earlier. As we drove down Bourbon Street, we could listen to the jumble of music coming from numerous Blues bars on the street. Small shops had their doors wide open and awaiting new customers. Novelty shops selling beads, and even traditional voodoo items were open and seemed to be doing quite well.

As we drove through the city, the smells of the local restaurants came through our car windows to entice us to come inside for lunch. We stopped at a local favorite for some soft-shell crab, and I got to introduce my father to a Po’boy. My wife and my mother made us stop for Beignets to take back to the hotel with us. Well, maybe they did not have to “make” us stop. After all, you really can’t go to New Orleans without having one.

Home is Definitely Where Your Heart Is

Leaving New Orleans made me realize something. People have been fighting and giving up their lives to protect their “home” since the beginning of time. Home is something that is as near and dear to us as our own family. There isn’t a person alive that does not have a strong connection to the place they call “home.”

Experts had been making predictions of the results from a direct hit by a hurricane in New Orleans for years. The devastation and loss of life that occurred was no surprise. A coastal city that is built below sea level could not expect any other outcome. Yet, those that call New Orleans home stayed. Those same people are still there, and have rebuilt their home. New Orleans is now back to its old self, and still serves as home to some of the most resilient people in America.

As I was leaving New Orleans on this last trip there, I could see the city in my rear view mirror. I could see the skyline, the traffic, and the businesses that people love. Although I was heading back to my own home in Indiana, I knew I would return to New Orleans again someday.

After all that has happened, New Orleans is now something more than just a place to visit. Just as Ground Zero in New York City, New Orleans is a symbol for Americans. It is a symbol of the same things our fore fathers fought for years ago. It represents “home”, and nothing will ever force an American to give up their home.

On this fifth anniversary of hurricane Katrina, Americans should stop to remember what we stand for: Freedom, Liberty, and the right to allow our hearts to determine our home.

Have some given up fighting illegal immigration?

These days, it is difficult for the average American to understand just what constitutes being an “illegal alien”. In fact, there are states in the U.S. that even grant a driver’s license to undocumented individuals. In 2003 California Governor Gray Davis even signed a bill that would have given these individuals the “RIGHT” to obtain a drivers license, and auto insurance. Arguments in favor of this bill claim that it would make our streets and roads safer by having more licensed and insured drivers. Those against argued the obvious. Why give someone a driver’s license if they are not supposed to be here to begin with?

It seems to me that by giving a driver’s license to those individuals in the U.S. illegally, it is more like saying “Since we cannot enforce the laws, let’s just try and make them safe drivers.” Isn’t that the same as just giving up? Have we really gotten to a point that our laws have gotten so complicated that they cannot be enforced, and the only reasonable thing left to do is to co-exist instead of enforcing the laws that were designed to prevent this? Obviously, the fight against illegal immigration is about a great deal more than just driver’s licenses, but it is just one example of how skewed many laws have become in fighting it.

Why should we be so stern on border security?

For years, we have been fighting against terrorism. Long before the attacks on 9-11-01, we were dealing with terrorist attacks in our homeland. In fact, the World Trade Center has been the focus of terrorist attacks in the past. The reason for these attacks has never been over oil, money, religion, or even land. The reason is because of hatred by others over our freedom. The very freedom we cherish most about our country. Stronger border security may have easily prevented many of the attacks within the U.S., but the flaws in our system continue to allow this to be a very real possibility. The irony of the 9-11-01 attacks on the World trade center is that our own flawed immigration system allowed these terrorist to live in our country. We even trained them how to fly the very planes they used in the attacks!

Each and every day, our country’s law enforcement agents fight crime and risk their lives to protect citizens. In fact, crime has seen a significant decline in almost every area, except illegal drug sales, possession, and usage. Some may argue that drug use would exist no matter where it came from, and they would probably be correct. However, our country’s law makers should be ashamed of the fact that the vast majority of illegal drugs bought and sold in the U.S. came across the borders we should be protecting. I find that it is an absolute travesty that while encouraging our law enforcement officers to risk their lives on a daily basis to find and arrest those involved in illegal drug trade that we put so little emphasis on preventing it from coming across the border in the first place.

Recently, the President of the United States allowed 3000 American troops to be placed along our southern border. Let’s put this into prospective. The city of New York employs over 34,000 police officers. The city of Phoenix, Arizona employs more than 3500 officers. I think it tells a bit about how much emphasis our government has placed upon border security, and stopping illegal drugs from entering the country.

Some of the latest jobless rates estimate that nearly ten percent of Americans are unemployed. Obviously recent financial problems within the structure of U.S. corporate have a great deal to do with those numbers, but there is also another large contributing problem. According to the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), more than 35 percent of America’s farming and custodial building maintenance industry is made up of illegal immigrants. Also, almost thirty percent of America’s construction workers are in the country illegally. We have to ask: If almost ten percent of our nation is unemployed, why are we continuing to allow large numbers in some of our core workforce areas to be consumed by people that are not even suppose to be in the country?

Some will argue that the employers of these people should be held accountable, and they would be correct to argue that point, to a degree. However, we also have to realize that it is because of our flawed immigration laws that it is allowed. In some states, it is completely legal for illegal aliens to be employed! It seems like a sort of paradox that we claim that they are here illegally, but it is illegal for us to prevent them from taking American jobs. Recently, the town of Fremont, Nebraska passed a law to prevent the hiring of illegal immigrants by businesses and the renting of housing to them by landlords. Would you believe that Nebraska is now coming under fire and the law is being contested by such people as the Civil Liberties Union? It seems that by stopping illegal immigrants from illegally prospering, we are somehow violating their civil rights. I do not claim to be a genius by any means, but doesn’t the Bill of Rights grant those rights to legal citizens of the U.S., or is this yet another part of the law that is now so far blurred that we can no longer enforce it? It raises the question: If you are not a legal citizen of the U.S., are you still protected by the same Bill of Rights written by Americans, for Americans?

How do we stop this madness?

Recently, the state of Arizona took a huge stance on illegal immigration. I will not agree or disagree with SB 1070, but I will say that I applaud the state for at least putting up a fight. I do think that it is the responsibility of the Federal government to create and enforce these types of laws, but the fact that they have not, leaves little else for a state like Arizona to do, except fight it themselves. I feel that at some point, the U.S. has to take a strong stance and put a stop to all of this. The fact that the country is being terrorized, jobs are being taken, and legal citizens of the country are paying the high price is nothing less than an outrage.

America needs to be tougher on illegal immigration. Obviously, we cannot stop all illegal aliens from entering the country. That would require a soldier at every square inch of the entire U.S. border. But, what we can do is make it simply not worth it for people to try and live and prosper in our country. We can do this by putting a stop to the laws that protect them from being rejected for employment, housing, and anything gainful, until they have provided legal documentation that permits them to live and work here. Do we give them a driver’s license to help keep our roads safe? NO! What we should be doing is arresting them at the DMV when they try! When a person is pulled over or arrested on our streets, they should be required that they provide documentation of U.S. citizenship.

One major reason for the rejection of the SB 1070 law of Arizona is the fear of racial profiling. I do agree that this law would be very difficult to enforce, without a certain degree of profiling, and to deny it we would just be kidding ourselves. However, there is a way to enforce such a law that is not bordering on discrimination. Force every American to always carry ID that proves their legal status. It could be a driver’s license, or even a simple ID card. Now, some will argue that an ID such as this can be easily forged. I say that notion is crazy, and with the technology we have in the U.S. today, it can be done.

Ever notice the black strip on the back of new driver’s licenses that is similar to that of a credit card? Why is that not being used by law enforcement? I was recently pulled over on an interstate for speeding, and yes I was guilty and I paid the price. But, while I was sitting there, the officer simply ran my driver license number, but never scanned the card. Perhaps he did not have the technology to scan it, but that is not the point. If an officer had this technology, and was require to use it with every single interaction, it could be used to detect whether or not a subject was a legal U.S. citizen. It would be a tool that could make a huge difference in the number of people that are undocumented and illegal in the country.

Protect our liberty

The U.S. was founded on a basis of liberty and the right to prosperity. It is this notion that attracts illegal immigrants to live in our country, and the same notion that attracts terrorist to try to destroy our country. It is not only our right to protect our freedom, but it is also our responsibility. We have a responsibility to help preserve this great nation for our children and grandchildren.

The United States of America began as immigrants, and will forever be “A country of immigrants”. However, it has to be a country of legal immigrants, and one that does not give asylum to those who wish to do harm to it. We have to find a way to enforce strict immigration standards, while continuing to grant freedom and liberty to those who live here as legal citizens.

It is the duty of our Federal government to provide the means for Americans to protect what is sacred in our lives. Laws preventing illegal immigration need to be solid, and not the transparent laws that allow them to be left to a matter of interpretation. Tying the hands of our law enforcement, yet asking them to die in the line of duty protecting our borders is simply unfair and unjust.

I firmly believe that the party lines of our country’s law makers take a front seat when it comes to creating and enforcing laws on immigration. We elect our politicians on the basis of ideas and beliefs, and by what our country needs, yet it seems that when the time comes, it is a party line that makes the deciding vote. Democracy is a wonderful thing, but when abused by the strict division of parties in the face of what is actually good for the nation, democracy will fail.

It’s my right to write

I am but an average person in the U.S. I am not a politician, nor a scholar, but I am one thing for certain: I am an American. By being an American, I have the right to express my opinion and I have the right to protect my liberty and freedom. I do not have the right to break the law, and I do not have the right to impose on the rights of another American. Because I am an American, I have the right to say this: If you want to live, raise a family and prosper in this country, become an American or get the hell out!

By James C.

A couple of weeks ago a friend stopped by. Early in our conversation, he asked me where I was that day when “It” happened. It took me a few seconds to catch on to why he was asking me. It was the anniversary of September 11, 2001, the day of the World Trade Center Attacks in New York City.

I began to tell my friend the story of where I was, and what I was doing when the attacks happened. I was working as a Paramedic, and had just gone off duty, but not yet left our station. All of us at station had sort of gathered in the lounge to watch the news of the first plane crash on television. Though nobody really knew it was a terrorist attack at that time, the event was breaking on all of the major news channels. I left to go home and be with my 10 year old daughter and work on my Paramedic to RN course homework, while my wife was just leaving for work as an EMT.

Shortly after arriving at home and tuning the TV to the news, the report of the second crash came across. It was at that moment things in the USA started to make huge changes. Panic set in many Americans, as they realized we were under attack. I will never forget the reactions of people that day. Even though hundreds of miles away, businesses were closing, people were lining up at filling stations to fill up with gasoline even though many pump owners had hiked their prices up to extremely high rates in their own reaction, and it was as though the attack had happened in the back yard of every home in America. I wanted my daughter to see these reactions, so I took her out for a drive around the small town we lived in. I pointed out such things to her, and told her to always remember them.

My friend and I talked a bit more about the attacks, and he told me his story, and where he was when they happened. It was then that it struck me as curious why we associate events such as these with details about what we were doing and where we were. Rather than to just simply remember the tragedy that occurred, perhaps it is our minds way of storing the moment by playing a complex game of word association. Or perhaps, it is just simply easier for us to deal with the magnitude of what happened by associating it with how it changed our lives, starting at that very moment.

Think about September 11, 2001. If you are like the rest of us, one of the first things you think about will be where you were, and what you were doing. We all have a story to tell about it, and that only reinforces proof of the way that day began changes in life for us all. What is your story?

I approached the vehicle and saw a U.S. Marine sticker on the drivers rear window and thought of my brother who was in the Marine Corps at the time stationed at Camp LeJeune, North Carolina. I spoke to the driver as I got to the window and asked for his driver’s license and vehicle registration just like always, but this was different.

I noticed the uniform, the battle fatigues of a U.S. Marine with decorations and ribbons on the chest area of the uniform. I asked the young Marine if he was aware the reverse lights were on while he was driving forward on his truck. He assured me that he knew but he had just gotten home from Iraq and had not had a chance to fix them yet. I received his license and registration from him with a “there you go, sir”. I told him I would check his status and be right back.

His information was correct and nothing was out of the ordinary, so I returned to the pick up truck and handed him his paperwork back and asked him if he had anything to drink that evening, as I smelled a slight odor of alcohol from the truck. He looked at me straight in the face and told me he just came from the V.F.W. where they had bought him one beer and he was so sorry he was driving after having had anything to drink. I asked if he would take a portable breath test and he agreed.

The test came back well below the legal limit and I apologized for the inconvenience and advised him he was “free to go now and drive safely”. He looked at me and said thank you for my concern and he appreciated everything I was doing for him and the community.

This just stunned me. Here is this U.S. Marine thanking me for my stopping him and checking to see if he was sober enough to drive. I said “you don’t need to thank me, I should be thanking you”. He laughed and told me, “You just thanked me by making sure I was safe and getting home tonight”. I stood there for a second and he said to me, “it’s your job to keep me and my family safe and it’s my job to keep you and yours safe”.

I guess I never really thought of it that way. I gave him a “Semper Fi, Marine” and got an “Oorah” as he drove away. I sat in my squad car for a few minutes to think about what just happened and say a prayer for the men and women serving in our military and on our streets here at home. This young man showed me why I do the job I do. I kept him safe so he could keep me safe. God bless our troops!

By Rick S.