09/29/2015
We all play a role in keeping the status quo alive. Below is the comment I posted on NPR's website. Media partners cover more about the failure of the traditional agencies than they do about alternative approaches or successful community innovations. Funders rarely fund community readiness beyond the standardized traditional -- no matter how much evidence shows why that doesn't work. This creates disaster victims, suffering, and billions of dollars of loss. Ana-Marie
"This is both heartbreaking and infuriating. With tiny edits (like removing newer phrases like "crowd-funding") this could have been post-event coverage from the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. For decades we've been locked in a deadly cycle of promoting the American Red Cross beyond any reasonable capacity to fulfill, followed by the "shock" of the failures, then the endless loop of criticism and defense. As a long-ago volunteer and contractor, I know the pain that their current people are experiencing.
Most people will not attempt to understand why this happens and how we can change the future. And few elected officials will champion and stay committed to an expensive, episodic, and politically charged issue that the vast majority of his/her constituents ignore.
As a nation, we have refused to address the killer politics behind our preparedness and response programs and policies. It has cost us many billions of dollars to create the failures you see today. And we are slated to lose billions more. What gets lost is that people -- usually the most vulnerable people -- suffer and die because of this. No amount of post-disaster response or remorse changes the fact that we repeatedly fund billions of dollars of familiar failure, even in the face of other solutions.
For anyone interested in stopping vulnerable people from dying, check out the amazing success story created by the nonprofit called Becoming Independent (BI). I called in to Michael Krasny's show about the Napa earthquake, to share how they changed the response for their hundreds of clients with intellectual disabilities. The clip starts at 44:45 (http://www.kqed.org/a/forum/R201508210900) The Pacific ADA Center featured this alternative approach on a recent webinar, it starts at 32:55.(http://adapresentations.org/archives/stream.php?id=25) It was a great honor to work with BI to create this success. With funding and media support for community-based solutions we could change how preparedness and response is done in this country.
The ritualistic promoting and pummeling of the American Red Cross has left us more vulnerable as a nation, and no amount of it puts us on the path of transforming preparedness and response. Celebrities, media partners, emergency services professionals, donors, funders, elected officials, and the public at large -- ALL OF US -- play a role in keeping the status quo in place.
Michael Krasny, will you do a show focused on how we can replicate effective solutions?
Blessings and best wishes to everyone impacted by these disasters, and heaps of gratitude to the volunteers and workers responding and serving this community."
When disasters like the Valley Fire ravage a community, many people donate to the Red Cross, assuming that's the best way to aid recovery and help victims. But recent investigations question the organization's efficiency and transparency. A proposed piece of federal legislation, the American Red Cro…
