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Reader From Michigan Responds to LACP Article:
Five Basic Things to Know About Those "Weapons of Mass Destruction"
by Don Farkas
We were gratified to learn that articles published in the Los Angeles Community Policing web magazine have a national reach and readership.
Daryll K. Yarger, an Americorps / American Red Cross Volunteer from Monroe County, Michigan, recently e-mailed LACP article writer, Don Farkas on October 23, 2006, to express interest in using Farkas' article, "Five Basic Things to Know About Those Weapons of Mass Destruction," published in the LACP.org web magazine's August 2006 edition.
EDITOR'S NOTE: click here to see the original article:
"Five Basic Things to Know About Those Weapons of Mass Destruction"
Yarger graciously stated, "I thought this was a very informational article." He inquired about being allowed to use the information in the article for presentations sponsored by the local American Red Cross Community Disaster Education and Youth Services division in his community.
The LACP article about WMD's, developed from an earlier version originally published in the Los Angeles Community Policing web magazine in July 2004, briefly summarizes some basic information about the five known types of "weapons of mass destruction" (biological, nuclear, incidiary, chemical, and explosive) and suggests some practical measures one could use to intelligently respond in the hopefully unlikely event of an attack.
In his message to Farkas, Yarger related how he and a fellow co-worker are currently trying to develop an improved educational curriculum about disaster preparedness that can be used by the American Red Cross Youth Services division he is involved with, to be presented to elementary, middle school, and high school aged students.
Yarger stated he has already helped educate 1,226 people in his community about natural disasters and preparedness since September 5, 2006, including 472 school age children, but is concerned that information about natural disasters would not be taken seriously by high school-aged students.
He states, "...the problem we are having is that if we were to take this curriculum into a high school the two of us would be laughred right out the doors by the students." He complains, "...high school students do not want to learn about weather and other natural disasters."
As a consequence of this perceived problem with regard to making presentations about disaster preparedness to high school students, Yarger said he and his co-worker were trying to design a program that would focus instead on more interesting topics related to potential attacks by weapons of mass destruction (WMD's), in place of presentations related to natural disasters. In seeking to develop such a proposed curriculum for a WMD course for high school students, they asked about using the pamphlet that had been described in Farkas' article concerning WMD's.
Yarger noted, "... right now our presentation is merely in outline form, and our CEO here is looking it over and making changes."
Mr. Farkas e-mailed Yarger back with the following response:
Hi, Daryll.
Greetings to you in Michigan. My mom, who was born and grew up in nearby Chicago, used to spend summers and many other times of the year visiting relatives at their farm in Michigan when she was a school-aged girl.
She used to tell me that while we here in California tend to worry most about earthquakes, the biggest disaster concerns that people in Michigan had were most related to tornadoes, but also included truly impressive thunderstorms, floods, droughts, brushfires, and ice and snow storms in the winter.
As best as I can recall, our relatives lived closer to Indiana and the Lake Michigan side rather than the Lake Erie side of Michigan where you live, and so I do not know if those are the same primary issues you have for disaster preparedness in Monroe County.
Thanks for your complimentary comments about my article, "Five basic things to know about those 'weapons of mass destruction'," that the Los Angeles Community Policing organization was kind enough to publish on their website.
For obtaining rights to reproduce articles published on their website, which I believe can be googled at www.LACP.org, you can contact them directly using the contact information provided on their website.
The article published on the lacp.org website essentially contains my entire pamphlet that starts with the paragraph, "The following summarizes some basic information about the five known types of "weapons of mass destruction..."
As I am the writer and copyright owner of the article and the pamphlet it describes, please feel free to have your CEO or authorized representative contact me for designing, assisting, or licensing the pamphlet, or one that is substantially similar, for your organization to use as part of a commercial product.
Alternatively, please feel free to have authorized representatives of Americorps or American Red Cross contact me to discuss possible arrangements for non-commercial, educational use of the pamphlet if they desire.
A few other thoughts came to mind while reading your e-mail:
* The degree of risk of attack by WMD's is not clear, but it is likely significantly much less than the well known risks of natural disasters which unfortunately recur with great frequency.
* I suspect high school students would not "laugh" about the risk and preparations for natural disasters if you first showed them videos of the consequences of some recent disasters and what happened to people who were not properly prepared. Education about the most likely risks to their health and safety would be the most useful result of your efforts and should be your primary focus, as opposed to focusing on much less likely risks for sensationalistic or dramatic purposes.
* The teaching of specific risks of WMD's to children of elementary and middle school-age would likely be ineffective for helping to protect them (beyond practicing how to immediately follow teachers' instructions to duck and cover) and would likely only serve to needlessly cause anxiety and fears that might potentially be harmful to them at that age. |
If I can be of any more assistance, please let me know. Good luck with your project.
Don Farkas, (310) 472-4822 |
EDITOR'S NOTE: click here to see the original article:
"Five Basic Things to Know About Those Weapons of Mass Destruction"
EDITOR'S
NOTE: Anyone who has any questions, comments or concerns should
feel free to contact: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Don Farkas
Don Farcus is a frequent contributor to LA Community Policing.
He's Chair of the ad hoc Bel Air Public Safety Advisory Committee
(BAPSAC) and Former BABC NC Public
Safety Committee Chairperson.
Email: donfarkas@belairmail.com
Phone - (310) 472-4822
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