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View From The Middle
Now, wait a minute. Chertoff....Isn't he the guy who gave our city - the first city to be hit by a terror attack in the nation; the city that lost almost 3,000 people in that attack; the city with the largest population in the country; the GREATEST city in the world - a relatively similar share, percentage-wise, of anti-terrorism funding as Milwaukee, Denver, Omaha, Indianapolis and San Diego, among a shameful list of others? Oh, yeah, THAT Chertoff! After arm-twisting, hearings, meetings with constituents and meetings with political officials, we wound up with $134 million under what's called the Urban Area Security Initiative Grant Program, which represents a little over seven percent increase over the $124 million awarded in the previous year. Either way, we were disastrously shortchanged, given what this city means to this country. You know it and I know it. We were - and are being - shortchanged by ineptitude, for one thing. It was heartening to hear Congressman Anthony Weiner, whose district covers some of our area, sarcastically bring the Homeland Department people to task when he said, "I am all for protecting the beer industry in Milwaukee, but not with the same funds to protect Wall Street and the United Nations from a terrorist attack." There is no doubt, as Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton aptly put it, that homeland security funding should be targeted to the most at-risk areas of the country, just as stated as one of the chief recommendation of the 9/11 Commission a full six years ago. Within the last few months we've seen threats and attacks on London and Glasgow, proof that large cities are indeed still the main targets, surely a helluva lot larger than Omaha. In a letter written to Chertoff early this month, Senator Clinton, to her credit, cited one (among others) of the stupid reasons we didn't get what was coming to us in an earlier funding period. The reason given was that the application contained "numerous flaws and mistakes," and, as a result, poor grades were given to the application. "The notion that the quality of a grant application somehow lessens the threat that the New York City region faces is absurd," Senator Clinton wrote. "More disturbing was the (Homeland Security) Department's explanation that the region lacked significant 'national monuments or icons'," she added. The process on just about every level is for the government agency that is giving out the money send out what is called a Request For Proposal (RFP) telling the agencies that are to receive funding to submit their applications post-haste and in proper condition, otherwise, they may as well give up. I have seen such agencies as Children's Services turn down youth programs if there is so much as a smudge or a misspelling on the application. If the application is sent properly, and on time, the chances of getting the funding are not necessarily guaranteed, but much, much better than if it is not sent properly. This is the way government works. It's part of what is called the "bureaucracy." Can you believe it? Some idiot in one of the lower (basement) areas where they receive RFPs or requests for grant funding, probably in a little facility on the outskirts of Washington, is deciding that the application, the one that could mean LIVING OR DYING AS A RESULT OF A TERROR ATTACK, has a smudge on it, or a misspelled word, should be turned down on those counts alone. This is the mentality we're dealing with. But we knew that, didn't we? We can argue and argue, but, because of these stupid cases of bureaucratic miscues, we are immediately on the defensive. That's why we have to depend on our political representatives to keep on the heels of the bureaucrats. But we also knew that, didn't we? That's why we vote so shrewdly.
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