Representing North Carolina’s Ninth District                                                                        

I’m hearing concerns from many that you believe that not enough is being done about national security.  I couldn’t agree more.  In fact, I’m outraged.

As usual, the federal bureaucrats talk, but do not act.  So, I’m constantly on their backs.  Congress has provided the resources to do the job, yet all we hear is “give us more money” while they can not, or will not, account for what they have already.

The federal transportation agency in charge of airport security has been “thinking about” ways to speed up airport security with some kind of consistency.  Thinking about!  I feel that I put my life at risk twice a week getting back and forth from the district to DC.  Many of you fly as much or more and several of you have shared with me your concerns that airline security is little more than rhetoric.

Attacks on nuclear power plants, high-rise apartment buildings, banks or office buildings would be as horrendous as airplanes that are used as missiles.  Experts have told me that one person carrying an armed briefcase could bring down an office tower.

Consider this:  Simultaneous guerilla attacks throughout America.  Pick a number – 5, 10, 25, 50, 100?  Form a mental image of synchronized explosions all over America: a day care in Maine – a bridge in Delaware – a restaurant in DC – a church in Florida – a trucking firm in Texas – a grocery store in Chicago – a school in Arizona – a TV station in Los Angeles – a fishery in Oregon – on and on , all at once.  What would be the result?  Chaos!  Civil chaos.  People would panic – then withdraw.  Commerce would grind to a stop.  The economy would plummet.  Wall Street would collapse.  We haven’t even experienced a full-scale attack – no major invasion – no bombers carpeting our cities – no missiles carrying nuclear warheads.

I do not intend to alarm you unduly.  However, the worst of our private thoughts and fears have now been verbalized repeatedly.  We have been practicing the American inclination to react.  Now, we must act – act in every way we can formulate instead of sitting back waiting for terrorists to attack.  Let’s take a cue from the Boy Scout motto and “be prepared”.  This problem will not just go away.  Local people need to have local response plans.

I have been working behind the scenes helping to organize regional emergency response teams.  Charlotte’s ALERT team, working regionally, is now considered to be one of the top three emergency response teams in America.

We must have that response capability from our firemen, law enforcement officers, EMTs and hospitals.  However we must, I believe more importantly, do more – much more – regarding prevention.  America has millions of former members of the military and retired law enforcement officers from local to federal levels.  What an incredible source of expertise to supplement our efforts for homeland defense.  In order to solicit their services, we are organizing The Citizens’ Corps in our region, and I am trying to help organize it nationwide.  Through my Homeland Security Task Force, we are also trying to work with educators to teach children what they can do to protect themselves.

Citizen involvement in the face of foreign threats is not new in America.  During World War II, we had the Civil Air Patrol and Air Raid Wardens, for instance – all citizen volunteers.  You’ll remember Minutemen, in colonial times, from back when we actually studied American history in our schools.

Many ordinary Americans throughout our history have done extraordinary things when needed.  We must again.  In the now immortal words of Todd Beamer, “Let’s roll” –because united we are invincible.

This invisible threat – this war on terrorism – is here with us, not somewhere in a foreign land.  We are no longer protected by miles of oceans and we can not expect the government to take all of the responsibility for our protection.  As trite as it may sound, ‘Uncle Sam needs you.’  Put another way, your family, your friends, your fellow citizens need you.

I need you.  I need your input, your ideas, your observations.  Such involvement has made America great and will keep her so.  I will take your ideas to the highest levels available and when applicable, we will implement ideas locally – together.

Currently, America is a house divided.  This is not a time for partisan politics or media pundits seeking points.  Further, we must not turn on one another.  We must talk about it together, study it together and solve it together.  Americans always have.  Americans always will because we are made up of all the people of the world.  We must be united as never before because we are threatened as never before.

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