By This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it HSO Contributor
It's dangerous out there, no matter which way you turn. The Government Accountability Office says that the National Park Service needs to improve its security practices at national parks and icons, while Congress aims to have manufacturers replace chemicals that terrorists could use to massacre us with safer alternative. Some fear that we're vulnerable to diseases passed along by animals, while IT managers are fretful of sabotage and data theft by disgruntled former employees. Mexican drug cartels are busily tunneling their way beneath billions of dollars' worth of border fencing, while Canadian border crossings now boast radiation detectors aimed at foiling those intent on smuggling in nuclear weapons. We've got the Coast Guard protecting our cruise ships and we've got plans in the works to collect fingerprints and eye scans from all those up-to-no-good foreign travelers going through airports.
 |
| Courtesy: www.HikingArtist.com |
In fact, it's so dangerous that a new survey commissioned by the National Homeland Defense Foundation and Colorado Technical University found that 75 percent of those polled believe the country will be the target of another 9/11-type attack in the next five years, and 51 percent of them don't personally feel safe from a terrorist attack (if the dudes with the night-vision scopes and heavy artillery don't feel at peace, then I'm probably going into total lockdown). Even worse, only 17 percent of survey respondents believe there are enough qualified job applicants to fill key homeland security positions.
And according to a frightening report from the organization Mission: Readiness, help from younger Americans apparently isn't on the way: 75 percent of them, the report concludes, are ineligible to serve their country because they've either failed to graduate high school, have engaged in criminal activity, or are physically or mentally unfit. (And I figure the other 25 percent are probably headed for the Peace Corps or Wall Street, so within a decade the National Guard will probably be comprised entirely of guys old enough to remember Jimi Hendrix playing at Woodstock.)
Breaking down the state-by-state totals of the Mission: Readiness report is the real eye-opener, since you get to see just how pathetic (or, in rare cases, how admirable) the local 17-to-24-year-olds really are. For example, only Texas and the District of Columbia (where I lived for many years) earned the distinction of being worse than the national averages in the report's three bellwether categories: obesity, failure to graduate high school on time, and intimate relationships with the criminal justice system. I'm proud to say that in my current home state of Maryland, one in every 27 adults is in jail, in prison, or on parole, which handily tops the national average of one in every 31. In nearby West Virginia, where I regularly dispose of my disposable income (hence the name) playing slot machines, 36 percent of the young people are overweight, compared to a national average of 32 percent. (By contrast, in Nevada only 34 percent of them are overweight -- a surprising finding, since it's been my experience that the buffets on the Strip are much more generous than the ones in the Mountaineer State.)
But the news isn't all grim: last month, the Washington Post reported that, for the first time in more than 35 years, the US military met all of its annual recruiting goals -- a turnaround attributed largely to rising joblessness. So if we can just keep our economy from plummeting further, we'll at least go to bed -- even if it's on a cousin's sofa bed -- knowing that the homeland is being protected by a bunch of smart, fit, and upstanding warriors.
Alan Green was formerly editor of investigative projects at the Center for Public Integrity, in Washington, D.C. His books include Animal Underworld: Inside America's Black Market for Rare and Exotic Species, which chronicles such issues as the threats to human health posed by the trade in pet primates.
Subscribe to this comment's feed
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
Company