I want to kiss this writer. Amanda, thanks for writing this gem of a story and I certainly hope other journalists follow your lead. We need more of these types of articles that promote empowerment and the ‘hero in waiting’ concept, because as we have seen so clearly with the recent attacks, the government, military and police cannot be everywhere and at all times to protect us.
The government is also doing a huge disservice by promoting this fallacy that they can protect you and me at all times, and criminals and terrorists are taking advantage of this weakness in the nations of the world. Instead, leaders should be pointing people towards the idea of empowering the citizenry, along with doing all they can to strengthen state sponsored security.
We should also be helping the government to connect the dots. Little things like the BHMA that I brought up, are tools that help connect the dots. The Texas Border Watch program is another way to involve people in watching the border, and connecting the dots. Most of all, an alert and informed citizenry can help out the government tremendously, just as long as the government is doing their job in processing that information. It takes an innovative approach to think of ways to involve the citizenry, and if the government was a student of Jundism, they would know that people will support what they help to create. Until then, I will continue to promote self-reliance and the hero in waiting concept.
The other thing that ticks me off on this, is the cycle we go through after events. That government and it’s military and police forces, are way to slow to react to most of these ultra-quick attacks. And when these groups fail at protecting us, the citizenry screams bloody murder, and then the blame game begins. Politics and finger-pointing gets fueled by the media, and then the whole thing turns into a circus. The outcomes usually relate to an increase in government and military size, an increase in safety measures that don’t make sense or don’t really work that well, an increase in the size and complexity of decision making loops, and an increase in taxes to pay for all of that.
So we get more inconvenience and we pay more money to the government, and yet terrorists and criminals are still able to defeat the security measures that we paid for and were sold on by the politicians. I say continue to apply Kaizen to our security measures and defenses, but begin to focus more on empowering the citizenry to get involved. Hell, we could even provide tax breaks to citizens that seek training or reward those that have done good deeds. We must foster the hero in waiting concept, because increasingly, that is the guy or gal that will stop the terrorist, criminal, active shooter, lone wolf, extremist, spy, and super empowered individual in the mad minutes of an attack or a crime. Millions of heroes in waiting throughout the world, are the ones that will increase our odds at defeating those who wish to do harm. We can’t stop all of it, because that is the nature of man, but we can certainly do more to help prevent and stop these acts. –Matt
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The Lesson: Passengers Are Not Helpless
Wednesday, Dec. 30, 2009
By Amanda Ripley
Since 2001, airline passengers — regular people without weapons or training — have helped thwart terrorist attacks aboard at least five different commercial airplanes. It happened again on Christmas Day. And as we do each and every time, we miss the point.
Consider the record: First, passengers on United Flight 93 prevented a further attack on Washington on 9/11. Then, three months later, American Airlines passengers wrestled a belligerent, biting Richard Reid to the ground, using their headset cords to restrain him. In 2007, almost a dozen passengers jumped on a gun-wielding hijacker aboard a plane in the Canary Islands. And this past November, passengers rose up against armed hijackers over Somalia. Together, then, a few dozen folks have helped save some 595 lives. {See the top 10 inept terrorist Plots.}
And yet our collective response to this legacy of ass-kicking is puzzling. Each time, we build a slapdash pedestal for the heroes. Then we go back to blaming the government for failing to keep us safe, and the government goes back to treating us like children. This now familiar ritual distracts us from the real lesson, which is that we are not helpless. And since regular people will always be first on the scene of terrorist attacks, we should perhaps prioritize the public’s antiterrorism capability — above and beyond the fancy technology that will never be foolproof.
Instead, we hear this blather from President Obama: “The American people should be assured that we are doing everything in our power to keep you and your family safe and secure during this busy holiday season.” He forgets that Americans have never really wanted the government to do “everything in its power” to keep us safe. That would make this a terrible place to live. And yet, after eight years of paternalistic bluster from President George W. Bush, we have grown accustomed to the cycle of absurd promises followed by failure and renewed by fear. Bush liked to say that the authorities have to succeed 100% of the time and terrorists only once. The truth is, authorities never succeed 100% of the time at anything. And they never will. {See a report card on Obama’s first year.}
By definition, terrorism succeeds by making us feel powerless. It is more often a psychological threat than an existential one. The authorities compound the damage when they overreact — by subjecting grandmothers to pat-downs and making it intolerable to travel. Even though the Christmas bombing suspect had been stopped, stripped and cuffed before the plane landed, we still talk like victims. “[This] came close to being one of the greatest tragedies in the history of our country,” New York Congressman Peter King said on CNN, criticizing Obama for not holding a press conference sooner.
When Obama did speak, three days after the incident, he first listed all the security reviews to be conducted while the rest of us sit tight. Only then did he briefly acknowledge reality: “This incident, like several that have preceded it, demonstrates that an alert and courageous citizenry are far more resilient than an isolated extremist.”
Here are some things Obama did not say: He did not propose that we find ways to leverage the proven dedication and courage of the public. He did not call for Congress to cut spending on homeland-security pork and instead double the budget of Citizen Corps — the volunteer emergency-preparedness service that was created after 9/11 and that most Americans have never heard of. He did not demand that the government be more open with us about the threats we face. He did not discuss the government’s obligation, as homeland-security expert Stephen Flynn puts it, to “support regular people in being able to withstand, rapidly recover and adapt to foreseeable risks.”
Karen Sherrouse was a flight attendant on the jet that Richard Reid tried to blow up. When one of her colleagues tried to stop Reid, Sherrouse rushed to help. But she couldn’t get down the aisle because so many passengers had already joined the melee. “They were instantly on him,” she remembers. “It was a group effort.” And so it should be. The flight attendants can’t be everywhere at once. Nor can TSA officers or the FBI.
After the passengers of Flight 253 deplaned in Detroit, they were held in the baggage area for more than five hours until FBI agents interviewed them. They were not allowed to call their loved ones. They were given no food. When one of the pilots tried to use the bathroom before a bomb-sniffing dog had finished checking all the carry-on bags, an officer ordered him to sit down, according to passenger Alain Ghonda, who thought it odd. “He was the pilot. If he wanted to do anything, he could’ve crashed the plane.” It was a metaphor for the rest of the country: Thank you for saving the day. Now go sit down.
Story here.