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Show Sept. 15 thru 21 Is National Defense Week This is National Civil Defense Week ... a time for evaluating our personal community and national nat-ional state of emergency preparedness. prepared-ness. It is also a time to ask questions. ques-tions. What would you do if a flood, tornado or hurricane struck this community? What would you do if the enemy started a thermonuclear thermo-nuclear World War III in this town? What plans have been de- veloped by our leaders to protect us from natural or man-made disasters? dis-asters? Is our local, State, nation al government ready to operate under emergency conditions? ; These are important questions' . . . demanding answers. Ia the event of enemy attack, the government would have the same responsibility for service in j emergency except on a-much,! much greater scale. The prob-jlems prob-jlems that would beset a nuclear bombed America are so staggering stagger-ing as to be virtually incomprehensible. incompre-hensible. No single local government can handle a major disaster alone J witness hurricane Audrey's trail: in Louisiana. Nor could the Federal Fed-eral government alone handle a major nuclear disaster. The development of a sound national na-tional non - military defense requires re-quires the participation of all governmentsfrom gov-ernmentsfrom Federal to local. It requires the governmental utilization utili-zation of utilities, transportation, communication facilities the utilization ut-ilization of service organizations such as the Red Cross, of industries indus-tries and of institutions all sup-lemented sup-lemented by trained auxiliaries. In a word, total non - military defense against disaster requires total non - military resources, both human and material. This is why YOU are the key to the success or failure of -this endeavor. This is why the White House designated this week National Nat-ional Civil Defense Week ... to J remind each and every one of us of the task that lies ahead if we are to preserve our nation, our social fabric, our civilization itself. it-self. There is much you can do. As an individual you can make a special effort to learn, from the proper authorities, the simple common sense measures you should know to protect yourself and your family from disaster: natural or man-made. Knowledge is strength and, in this thermonuclear thermonu-clear age we live in, knowledge may one day be life itself. With your neighbors, you can support and encourage our governments, govern-ments, on all levels, to take the steps necessary for the improvement improve-ment of their ability to operate under emergency conditions. Give our public officialdom the backing and stimulation they need to build into our governments a disaster preparedness. If each of us were prepared to the full limit of our abilities to meet the dangers of disaster . . . if every government in these United Uni-ted States develops a high degree of emergency readiness as a result re-sult of our collective efforts, then this nation would be truly prepared prepar-ed to meet whatever disaster the future may hold in store. The questions we asked earlier will then have been answered. |
