Watching my beloved Iowa Hawkeyes play Arizona I was looking through my Google Reader during commercial breaks. I saw this story over at Iowa News Liter. We now have an additional line of defense for our great country. The Girl Scouts. AFP reports:
The United States wants to enlist its 3.4 million Girl Scouts in the effort to combat hurricanes, pandemics, terror attacks and other disasters.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) launched a campaign Tuesday to entice the blue, brown and green-clad multitudes to be even more prepared, with the promise of a new patch if they pitch in.
The young scouts will be able to emblazon their sashes or vests with the patch if they undergo the training which readies them for an emergency.
"This new preparedness patch will increase citizen preparedness and enhance our country’s readiness for disasters," said DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano in a statement. (read the rest)
This is an affiliation between Citizen Corps and the Girl Scouts.
I think it’s good to teach kids to be prepared in case of emergencies. So it isn’t a bad education strategy, but how much it will help in actual emergency? Probably not much because what will their role actually be in the case of a terrorist attack, hurricanes, or pandemics? What kind of a role would their parents allow them to play? Perhaps that is a better question. I don’t see sending my 9-year-old or 13-year-old daughters out after a disaster.
They do sell some awesome cookies though, maybe they can pass those out to victims. Love the thin mints.