I believe that we as Americans must recommit ourselves to living the principles that made this nation safe, free, and prosperous while simultaneously standing ready to defend it against attack foreign or domestic. In order to prevent an attack, there's no higher priority than readiness through prevention, detection, deterrence. The only way to reduce America's vulnerability is to provide persistent, simple and sensible national security campaigns.
If we are going to secure our nation we must rethink how we approach it. For national security to truly be effective it must start as a bottom up effort beginning at the citizen level first. Through engaging in new partnerships on the community, city and county levels, state and local governments need to extend empowerment of their already developed preparedness plans and education campaigns to private citizens who can participate in the already existing initiatives to prepare and defend their homes and their neighborhoods against unplanned disasters both natural and man made.
The answer to this problem was actually laid out by our founding fathers nearly 221 years when they wrote the second amendment. “A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a Free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” I know that militias are not a politically correct idea or concept right now and most likely I have alienated a good portion of you by simply mentioning this, but hear me out. (*Remember my campaign pledge, "If I ever say or do anything that is considered politically correct, it's completely by accident") I believe that this complies with my pledge....
If a community defense program (militia) were organized and accountable under the oversight and training of the state and local law enforcement as well as the National Guard their ability to deter and respond becomes exponentially greater. Local law enforcement officials should be empowered to enforce national security as they are more in touch with the local climate and act with much more efficiency and less bureaucracy. Homeland Security is a national issue but like immigration, the immediate effects are felt locally.
To have real reform on this issue we have to start and empower at a local level including our citizens, then it becomes much more effective and easier to manage and administer at the federal level. Tom Ridge originally laid a foundation for this involvement, all I am doing is expanding it to be effective for the climate we are in today. For the defense preparedness message to resonate most effectively, it must be delivered at the local level or community level where it will make a difference. It's an absolutely essential component of a successful Proactive Campaign.
Empowering individuals on the local level and organizing from there builds the needed infrastructure to be able effectively work on the city, county, state and regional level. If our citizens are not properly trained and empowered, all our weaknesses will constantly be exploited by those who seek to destroy us. This is because sadly the federal government cannot mobilize quickly enough to prevent a soft target disaster, they can only clean up the mess and perform a lock down due to lack of manpower and budget cutbacks.
This is why I do not believe the answer is expanding the reach of the federal government and continuing to compromise our constitutional rights, and increasing your taxes while doing it; quite the contrary the simple solution is to involve all of us because it is in all of our best interests that our nation is secure especially on the community level. As someone who witnessed the horrific attacks of 9/11 first hand, this is a very important issue to me. That is why I believe we must be boldly changing our approach if we are going to remain citizens of a free and safe nation.
To have a community defense program already have in place; these civilian trained experts could be deployed in community teams to contribute their efforts and training with local and federal first responders. This is an affordable, effective and sustainable way to prepare for domestic attacks. This community defense program would also stand ready with local physicians and pharmacist to help both develop and deploy needed vaccines and antitoxins that provide immunity to such diseases as smallpox, anthrax or other deadly biological agents.
Why is it less acceptable for a person to receive self defense and fire arms training from their local police department to secure against domestic criminal assault or burglary than for a woman who was victimized to do the same. Both classes are sponsored by the local police department to help protect women from being raped and abused and every woman should take this to defend against criminal aggressors. But why is the public opinion so sour when we do it to defend our home or if we did it collectively as a community?(*Political correctness rearing its ugly head?)
America must be capable of proactively protecting the nation and its citizens. My recommendations for change to the organizational structures of National Security include: diminishing the separation of homeland security and national security, primarily through the abolishment of the Homeland Security Council, and setting up local citizen councils to administer on a local level; the establishment of a working Departmental Resource Planning Board and expansion of the Office of Program Analysis and Evaluation that works on and through a local level; Congressional oversight consolidation and expanded local and state government involvement and revamping the process of obtaining Federal level assistance for civil defense initiatives.
We have got to simplify the overall process of obtaining Federal level assistance for civil defense initiatives. Ideally a civil defense block-grant program under the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) should be established to enable city, county and state authorities to target funding to address their unique civil defense needs so that empowers on a local level first.
Much of this mess we are in is that 'we the people' have put our trust in Washington to solve all of our problems which is ironic since they cannot seem to balance a budget or stop spending when they do not have the money to do so. I know that this is an overused example but it bespeaks of the mindset in DC. This is our nation, we have to take responsibility and take charge of it, for if we do not exercise our ownership in it, others will.
Tom Ridge originally laid a foundation for this involvement; all I am doing is expanding it to be proactive and adaptive for the climate we are in today. For the defense preparedness message to resonate most effectively, it must be delivered at the local level or community level where it will make a difference. It's an absolutely essential component of a successful Proactive Campaign.
We must continue to empower our local and state leaders, our city officials, our first responders and citizens, and to participate, and take the necessary readiness resources and training to prevent and recover from any potential disaster, whether natural or man-made. National security should be more than just a federal department; it is and should be a national calling that impacts us on the local level. All of us must have a proactive role and a responsibility in the protection of our communities, our state and our nation, and we must be both ready and willing to make security a lifestyle.
My recommended changes to processes to include: executive and legislative joint work to improve budget structures, account structures, databases and reports to create a more unified and mission-oriented approach to homeland security budgets on a local, state regional and national level; better articulate national security strategies to illustrate the linkages between strategy and resources for national security; improve the planning, programming, budgeting and execution committee by incorporating it on a local level; and solidifying mutual border security support agreements with neighbors Canada and Mexico.
It is imperative to get support agreements with Canada and Mexico on responding aggressively to terrorist acts on our borders. A biological, nuclear or Electro-Magnetic Pulse(EMP) from a "dirty bomb" attack on Seattle, for example, could have devastating ramifications for people in Vancouver, BC. Canada and Mexico should sign agreements with United States to cooperate not only as a joint community effort in preventing such attacks, but also in coordinating emergency response teams to respond to the consequences should such an event occur.
More in Vincent's own words:
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I really want to hear your feedback on this issue. As an individual running as a Senator, my job would be to listen to you as your representative and then act accordingly upon the expressed will of you, the people. This is why at the end of every issue I have a comment feedback section, because without your direct involvement in this campaign, I would just be another politician promoting my agenda over that of those whom I work for and was elected to represent.
