On Tuesday, domestic security chief Tom Ridge proved what we’d been suspecting all along — that the newly established Office of Homeland Security is an utterly useless, ridiculous waste of money.
In response to public complaints that government alerts since Sept. 11 only scared people and didn’t provide enough guidance, Ridge announced that OHS created a five-level system intended to specify what state of “alert” the country should be on for terrorist attacks, as well as actions government agencies should take. Like stop lights, the system is based on colors, with each color signifying a certain level of risk. For example, Ridge says we are at “yellow” right now, which means an “elevated condition” with significant risk for attack.
The color-coded system was meant to provide a “common vocabulary” and make it easier for government agencies and the public to react to terrorist threats. However, all this will do is cause more confusion. The common traffic signal colors — red, yellow and green — would be a much simpler way to communicate. But what is the point anyway? What do we know now that we didn’t know Monday? We’re on condition yellow now. That doesn’t make things clearer than “medium” or “highest” level of alert. The OHS could simply nix the color idea and — outrageous, we know — simply tell people what to do.
If the system is so simple, why did it take so long to create? If OHS was truly providing a useful service, a streamlined system would have been issued months ago. We also have to wonder how much money the process of creating this idea cost. With a bloated $37.7 billion budget, OHS should have the resources to devise more innovative strategies than useless color schemes.
While Ridge doesn’t have the legal power to implement this system on his own, he urged officials everywhere to adopt it. We’ve got a better idea: Officials should claim to be colorblind and disregard the five-level system entirely. Even better, let’s get rid of the Office of Homeland Security altogether, since it is obviously not doing the job it was intended to do.
Nation should be colorblind to Homeland Security plan
Daily Emerald
March 12, 2002
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