The Edge of Disaster - Managing Expectations

Steven Flynn's recent book The Edge of Disaster has garnered the expected "inside the beltway" Washington response. Finally today a senior official at the Department of Homeland Security (no doubt in the Public Information Office) began to spout the company line and tie it to Mr. Flynn's book. Point by point the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) again remind the American public that a federal response is always more than 24 hours away, in fact, usually 48 to 72 hours.Point by point the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) again remind the American public that a federal response is always more than 24 hours away, in fact, usually 48 to 72 hours. The familiar theme of self-responsibility and self-preparedness are trotted out again for review of a distracted American public.Unfortunately, both the Department of Homeland Security and Mr. Flynn are right. In America, as soon as the catastrophe or a disaster has past we busy ourselves with the activities of every day life and forget the lessons that we learned when the most recent adversity struck us. In short, we never develop resilience.It is gratifying to me, having declared 2007 unofficially the year of resilience, that speakers and pundits around the country are now re dr seuss cat in hat book