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Ongoing Thoughts 18:
By William E. Steinman:
God Emperor again:
I wish
I have addressed Betrayal of Trust before. This is where as
person in a position of public trust, like a priest, mayor, executive, or cop
uses his position in some kind of crime or fraud. That would definitely get
life in prison. Rape and child molesting would get life on the first
conviction, no second chance to hurt women or kids. I would make the three
strikes law a national law. It is a good law. Bleeding hearts will appeal that
and say he only stole a bicycle or he only did this or that. That should not
get life. I will answer, he is not being put away for stealing a bike, he is
being put away because he is incorrigible. Incorrigible habitual criminals must
be incapacitated. They cannot be allowed to prey on society.
I would promise to end the energy crisis for
I would begin the reform of law enforcement by disbanding
the FBI and the CIA because they are corrupt and incompetent. I would start
over by creating a single national police department. I would hire and train
good cops who are intelligent and in good physical shape. There would be no
potbellied dumb cops. They would be responsible for all federal law enforcement
and for international situations that required investigative activities. I
would create a police academy with a two-year program for cops, a four-year
program for investigators and a PHD program for advanced degrees. This PHD
program would produce Doctors of Philosophy in Criminology. The four-year
program would produce real detectives.
I would institute the five other agencies I defined in the
Gaffer’s Philosophy for disasters and military service etcetera. These
suggestions bear repeating. I would make this plan national law. I would begin
a universal draft to staff these agencies. I would add an educational service
to the ones I have already defined. In addition to the traditional military
service, I have defined five others. These are the United States Emergency
Response Service (USERS), the International Support and Response Service
(ISRS), the Military Support Service (MSS), the International Police and
Training Service (IPTS), and the United States Domestic Service (USDS).
I realize we have a very important domestic need that is not
military in nature. I have noticed, most of our West is often on fire and we
have a perennial shortage of firefighters. This shortage is so severe we
sometimes use untrained soldiers as fire fighters. I believe this could be
another very important area of service. Thus, I propose another branch of
service. It would be like the military except it would be an unarmed, internal
emergency, support service. I would call it the United States Emergency
Response Service (USERS).
I have said that every American citizen should give at least
2 years and no more than 4 years of service to their country between the ages
of 18 and 30. I would make that a law. For this special emergency service I
would propose 3 years of service. The first year would be strictly a training
period. The finial two years would be in actual service. I visualize this
service as being completely staffed by our draft with idealistic people
choosing this particular service.
This service would be equipped to deal with any emergency
situation. These would include fires, riots, floods, hurricane, airline
crashes, and oil spills. They would have whatever equipment they needed. They
would also be adequately staffed to do this effectively. They would also need
rapid deployment capability. As in all other services I proposed, the USERS
would accept people from all races and both sexes. There can be no discrimination.
Women have demonstrated they can be very effective in these capacities.
Now I want to differentiate this USERS branch of service
from the national guard. The national guard is composed of citizens who give
part of their time to service, but are otherwise occupied most of their time.
Most have full time jobs. While they can be called up to deal with emergency
situations, they are usually not trained specifically for those things. There
are very good at and best fitted for limited military operations and peace
keeping. They are really not trained or qualified for extended military service
or disaster response.
Extended military service belongs to the full time military.
No one else is qualified for that. Disaster response is where the USERS come
in. They will be specifically train in all classes of domestic disaster
response. They are specialized and, just as in the military, they work as
teams. They come to know each other.
Let me now briefly outline another form of service that
would fall under this universal draft. I call it the International Support and
Response Service (ISRS). This would be a strictly foreign service to aid and
support other peoples in other countries in times of need. Much like the Peace
Corps, established under Kennedy, it would absorb those functions.
This would be a three year service with the first year again
being dedicated to training. One very important thing in this training would be
languages. The field people would necessarily need to know the language of the
people they were serving. Notice I said serving, not aiding or helping which
words imply condescension. We are there to serve our fellow men and women as
best we can. From that, you may conclude that sensitivity training would be a
necessary part of this service. You bet!
What would these folks do? The would go out in teams and
work with the locals to help recover from disasters natural and otherwise. They
would help feed famine victims. They would do rescue work in floods. They would
distribute medicine and apply first aid techniques. They would help build
hospitals and support medical people. They would install wells and implement
sanitation techniques. They would bring clothing and help build shelters for
displaced people. Anything that needs to be done, they would do or help to do.
These services would be provided to the peoples of other
countries under the direction of the American government. They would be
provided only at the request of the government of the people they are to serve.
There can be no clandestine operations. These are not political or military
people and they cannot be put at risk for any political advantage or for any
alleged altruistic motives. They must work through the normal channels of
communication and delivery.
I will continue this theme in my next Ongoing Thoughts.