The Department of Homeland Security and its Impacts on the United States Emergency Preparedness Success or Failure

Introduction The September 2001 terrorist attacks in the US made the US’ citizens concerned about the capacity of the government to ensure that they are secure at all times whether while in their country or in foreign nations. The resulting impacts of the terrorism act also had severe ramification on the government’s part. The government was left shocked that its security systems were not able to prevent attacks from occurring.Advertising We will write a custom research paper sample on The Department of Homeland Security and its Impacts on the United States’ Emergency Preparedness: Success or Failure specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Due to the homogenous effects of the terrorist attack, it was a matter of common knowledge that restructuring of the internal security surveillance system was necessary through the enactment of an appropriate policy in the effort to ensure that such attacks would not occur in the f uture. This prompted the creation of the division of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in 2002. DHS was mandated to shield the US from reacting to terrorists’ attacks coupled with making sure that all Americans were prepared to counter the aftermaths of natural disasters including floods, fires, diseases outbreaks, and earthquakes (Abbott, 2005, p.5).  Disaster preparedness is critical in contemporary times. America depicts well the significance of disaster preparedness owing to the degree in which the US is prone to myriads of terrorists’ attacks and other natural catastrophes. This fact makes it necessary for the US to develop various state apparatus that would enable it to respond towards emergencies that may pose a danger to the American lives (Burmgarner, 2008, p.29). Implementation of policies that aid in the establishment of apparatus for manning terrorism and natural catastrophes is critical since one of the constitutional rights of the Americans is t o have their lives protected by the government. The central apparatus that ensures the fulfillment of this legal right is the department of homeland security. FEMA is the central agency that lies within DHS. Since the establishment DHS in 2002, the US has escaped incidents of terrorist attacks. However, natural catastrophes have been recorded since then. These catastrophes often lead to economic losses to a nation. For instance, the US was struck by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Hurricane Katina poked holes in the readiness of the Department of Homeland Security on issues separate from terrorism.   Perhaps this claim reveals the resurgence of the debate in the capability of the United States’ policy on emergency management and the ability of the state to deal with complex issues. This paper revolves around this interrogative.Advertising Looking for research paper on government? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Precisely, the paper attempts to explore the department of homeland security in a bid to determine the impact of the agency on efforts of disaster preparedness in America. The goal is to determine whether the agency has been effective or otherwise in achieving its mandate. The evaluation of the effectiveness of the DHS is based on the theoretical paradigms of disaster management. Hypothesis In the effort to explore emergency and disaster management in the US’ context, the paper attempts to determine the accomplishments and letdowns of the Department of Homeland Security. It hypothesizes that, amid being well prepared to handle situations articulated to terrorism activities, the department of homeland security is prone to being caught off guard by catastrophic natural disasters. Research Questions In the effort to prove or disapprove the hypothesis in the attempt to determine the effectiveness of the department of homeland security in achieving its mandates, this research paper grapples with three main questions: Has the disaster management capacity of the United States been overtaken by the fixation on fighting terrorism? What could explain the government’s failure to respond promptly to save the lives of Americans during Hurricane Katrina? What is the nature of the threats that the United States envisions due to the conglomeration of the disaster management organs under FEMA? Research Methodology The research methodology deployed in this research paper is qualitative research. Assessment of various researches for the establishment of theoretical paradigms that may help to explain the applicability of concepts of disaster management in manning all possible dangers that a nation may be exposed to in an attempt to respond promptly before they occur will be considered. This approach forms the basis for making comparison of the extent to which the operations of DHS measures up to the developed theoretical paradigms thus implying that the data used in the rese arch is mainly derived from secondary sources. Hence, the methodology used in this research paper introduces a challenge of reliability and validity of the inferences made herein. However, this challenge is countered by the use of a wide range of scholarly research in the discipline of disaster management. On the other hand, the instances in which the DHS has been caught off guard by disasters are based on real examples of natural catastrophes that have occurred in the recent past under the full watch of DHS. These examples are crucial in the effort to evaluate the effectiveness of DHS and in the development of theories that explain the DHS policy. Literature Review The uncertainty and unexpectedness of disasters make disaster management technique an incredibly difficult subject because disasters strike mostly when people least expect it (Abbott, 2005, p.3). All countries have probabilities of being exposed to disasters of various types. Bumgarner (2008) defines four types of disast ers: natural disasters, environmental emergencies, pandemic emergencies, and complex emergencies (p.25).Advertising We will write a custom research paper sample on The Department of Homeland Security and its Impacts on the United States’ Emergency Preparedness: Success or Failure specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Examples of natural disasters include volcano eruptions, floods, hurricanes, and earthquakes amongst others. These disasters expose people to both primary and secondary impacts. With regard to Varghese (2002), natural disasters have â€Å"immediate impacts on human health, as well as secondary impacts causing further death and suffering from floods that cause landslides, earthquakes that result in fires, tsunamis that cause widespread flooding, and typhoons that sink ferries† (p.102). A well-designed disaster management system within a nation needs to be proactively prepared to avoid or reduce these implicat ions before or after the occurrence of the disasters.  Environmental disasters encompass industrial and technological accidents. They are usually experienced due to hazardous materials used in production processes. Such disasters take place where the dangerous materials are used and or transported. Forest infernos are also induced in these types of disasters. On the other hand, pandemic emergencies entail sudden eruption of contagious diseases, which have devastating effects on human health coupled with aftermaths of disruptions of businesses and service delivery mechanism. Consequently, pandemic emergencies truncate into social and economic costs. Complex emergencies entail power failures, â€Å"attacks of certain national strategic installations, and looting† (Lindell, Tierney Perry, 2001, p.19). The emergencies lead to war and or the emergence of conflicts. The resolution of these conflicts and wars has the implication of consumption of state resources at the expense of other needs of the citizens. This case perhaps explains why a nation’s arm of internal security needs to prepare and where possible identify any volatile situation that may lead to war and resolve the causes of conflicts before the situation gets out of hand to warrant the deployment of state machinery to quench the disputes. Now, it sounds plausible to posit the question: how prepared is the DHS to address these types of disasters?  The above query introduces several relevant concepts in the theory of disaster management. These concepts include disaster preparedness, disaster recovery, disaster relief, and disaster prevention. Disaster preparedness entails all the activities that are designed to ensure that damages and losses of life are minimized should a disaster struck (Smith, 2006, p.13). These activities include â€Å"removing people and property from a threatened location and or facilitating timely and effective rescue, relief, and rehabilitation† (Hansen Sc hramm, 1993, p.56).Advertising Looking for research paper on government? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Through the deployment of disaster preparedness strategies, nations reduce the effects of disasters. In line with this argument, Hansen and Schramm postulate, â€Å"community-based preparedness and management should be a high priority in physical therapy practice management† (1993, p.57). Catastrophe aid refers to the â€Å"responses that are multi-agency and coordinated to enhance the mitigation of the effects of disasters coupled with their results in the long-term basis† (Hansen Schramm, 1993, p.57). Several relief activities are conducted in the event of a disaster. They include repairing of the vital utility lines that are destroyed by an accident, foods provision to the affected, relocation of people in the effort to escape the ramifications of disasters, provisions of health care, provisions of temporary shelter until the accident has been managed, and rescues of the affected people amongst other activities. After all the emergency needs are taken care of upon the occurrence of a catastrophe, disaster recovery becomes necessary. Although the initial crisis is brought to a halt, at this stage, the individuals who experience the negative impacts of the disaster are normally prone and susceptible to the implications of the accident. Adversity recuperation efforts encompass actions such as psychoanalysis and renovation of the shattered road and rail network. These efforts need to be â€Å"combined with development activities such as building human resources for health and developing policies and practices to avoid similar situations in the future† (Hansen Schramm, 1993, p.56). Lastly, it is crucial to deploy mechanisms to ensure that people affected by a disaster are protected from being exposed to similar tragedies in the future. This strategy calls for the development of strategies for disaster preventions, which include â€Å"activities designed to provide permanent protection from disasters† (Nicholson, 2003, p.67). However , it is vital to note that not all disasters can be prevented from occurring in the future. Indeed, â€Å"natural disasters, in particular, can be prevented, but the risk of loss of life and injury can be mitigated with good evacuation plans, environmental planning, and design standards† (Nicholson, 2003, p.67). Upon scrutiny of these four concepts of disaster management, the main interrogative that arises is how the existing theory on disaster management measures up to provide validity of these approaches in the mitigation and management of disasters. Emergency and Disaster Management Theory Considering the impacts of the disaster on the image of a government’s capacity to protect the life of its people, many nations have embarked on looking for mechanisms for enhancing emergency and disaster management. To achieve this noble goal, a harmonious definition of emergency and disaster as the subject matter for which an appropriate policy is to be enacted to address is vit al. However, the theory on disaster management lacks a unified definition of what amounts to an emergency or disastrous condition. Donahue and Joyce (2001) define disaster as â€Å"calumnious natural or human-caused emergency events that suddenly result in extensive negative economic and social consequences for populations they affect† (p.728). This definition implies that emergencies and disasters are physical acts or acts of nature, which destroy various socially constructed events. Despite the difficulty encountered in the effort to describe succinctly the complex social and physical aspects that may lead to disasters and hence designing the disaster preparedness apparatus to mitigate such elements, it is crucial to develop a scholarly agreement on what amounts to a disaster. The claim holds because â€Å"unless people clarify and obtain minimum consensus on defining features per se, they will continue to talk past one another on the characteristics, conditions, and conse quences of disasters† (Lindell, 2007, p.71). Despite the existence of the gaps in harmonious definition of disasters, many scholars in the field of disaster management concur that irrespective of the scale or the nature of an emergency, it has the capacity to deter the social and economic wealth fare of citizens. Therefore, governments need to come out eloquently to reduce the impacts of disasters. The realization of dangers that are posed by disasters calls for effective strategies of emergency management. Unfortunately, much of the literature in the field of emergency and disaster management focuses more on disaster predictions and consequences. It does not dwell on emergencies. This challenge makes â€Å"the focus on emergency relative besides limiting the applicability to first responders† (Lindell, 2007, p.71). The gap may be attributed to the idea that focusing scholarly work more on emergency management may create a notion that people have the ability to deal pro actively with all adverse and unprecedented occurrences termed as disasters. For this reason, the study on emergency management is seen as both oxymoron and misnomer (McEntire, 2007, p.19). Hazards whose emergency management efforts focus on has been changing as the history of experienced disasters changes. In this line of argument, McEntire (2003) posits, â€Å"practitioners and academics initially gave priority to the civil hazards of a nuclear exchange between the United States and the USSR during the Cold War† (p.39). Therefore, all apparatus of emergency disaster management paid much of their attention to emergency and disastrous conditions arising from nuclear missile exchanges. When these challenges ceased to ail different nations on successful resolution of conflicts, other new forms of disasters came up. Hence, the focus of emergency and disaster management also changed to focus on technological hazards. This approach arose from Chernobyl, three miles island, and Bho pal disaster amongst others.  With the experience of natural disasters such as Loma Prieta earthquakes, Northridge earthquake, Hurricane Andrew, and Midwest flooding, the emergency and disaster management apparatus in different nations reoriented themselves to ensure that, in the occurrence of such disasters, their repercussion on human life would be mitigated. Today, the ranges of emergency and disastrous conditions that are likely to face nations have increased to include civil emergencies attributed to acts of terrorism. Much analogous to the changing of the structures of disaster management to take up measures to deal with recurrence of the already experienced disasters, following the September 2001 terrorists attack, the US created the department of homeland security (DHS) as the central apparatus to ensure that America remains well protected against disasters associated with acts of terrorism. The main question that arises here is whether DHS will have to be restructured to ensure enhanced disaster preparedness when another disaster that has not been experienced in the past will strike America. The dilemma posed by this interrogative is that Americans are â€Å"confronted with a choice between more common, but less consequential events versus infrequent, but higher impact occurrences† (Bumgarner, 2008, p.83). Consequently, â€Å"it is difficult but also necessary to come up with an appropriate approach between hazard-specific and generic alternatives† (Bumgarner, 2008, p.83). In this endeavor, theoretical paradigms of emergency and disaster management are imperative.  Many theories have been put forward to explain disasters and emergencies management concepts. In the context of emergency and disaster management, such theories are imperative since acts of terrorism, disasters such as Chernobyl, three miles island, and the Bhopal disaster can be attributed to human behavior. Examples of the theories that can be deployed to explain some th e catastrophes that are attributed to human actions include Jetkinks social constructionism theory. The theory explains the â€Å"manufacturing of terrorism threat, conservation resources model used by Arata et al. (2000) to predict the psychological implication of the Exon Valdez oil spill disaster, and social vulnerability approach† (Enarson et al. (2003, p.4). These theories provide ample insights to emergency managers on the impacts of human behaviors’ capacity to give rise to disasters in some ways. In the first place, they indicate the existence of abundant frameworks and broad-based theoretical paradigm that links human behavior to emergencies and disasters. Secondly, they avail the basis from which true theories for disaster and emergency management and response can be rested. In the framework for analysis emergency, Donahue and Joyce maintain that emergency management is a complex policy subsystem that involves an intergovernmental, multiphase effort to mitiga te, prepare for, respond to, and recover from disasters† (2001, p.728). These complexities emanate from the need to determine and allocate behavioral and fiscal incentives that are necessary for the formulation of the disaster and emergency management policy. Before the occurrence of an emergency and or a disaster, spending in the apparatus of disaster management often attracts the public eye scrutiny. Indeed, Donahue and Joyce argue that, in such situations, a conflict exists between the state and public on the hazards that amount to emergencies and disasters so that public resources can be allocated to develop preparedness, response mechanism, and relief strategies. When still struggling with this debate, in case natural calamity strikes, many of the critics hardly turn around to pose a question on the necessity of government intervention. Rather, as Donahue and Joyce explain, â€Å"citizens tend to automatically view the situation as a serious public problem requiring imme diate governmental actions† (2001, p.728). In the case of the United States, this governmental action is effected through the department of homeland security. The underlying action is driven by the mandate given to the DHS to reduce incidences and magnitudes in a bid to mitigate the threats associated with the occurrence of disasters and emergencies coupled with preparing for, responding to, and recovering from the impacts of emergencies and disasters (McEntire, 2004, p.17). In this context, emergency and disaster management tools operate as both instruments of emergencies, disaster surveillance, and as apparatus for responding to disasters and emergencies within a nation.  Surprisingly, amid the development of a well-organized apparatus for disaster and emergency management, disasters still strike. Does it, therefore, mean that all apparatus for disaster management, including the department of homeland security are ineffective? Evans and Drabek (2004) offer an answer to thi s query by positing that managing disasters gives rise to challenges that are formidable to the governments’ emergency and disaster management apparatus since they present a requirement for making difficult decisions on service delivery systems for the affected people (p.45). In their nature, disasters offset the â€Å"capacity of the governments whose jurisdiction they strike† (Donahue Joyce, 2001, p.728). Therefore, the affected governments have to source aid from other nations. In the absence of a disaster, a government cannot place a diplomatic call for help should an emergency or disaster occur in the future (McEntire, 2003, p.107). This implies that the internal emergency and disaster management apparatus only have resources adequate for the development of emergency and disaster preparedness strategies but not for relief, rescue, and recovery.  The overall objective of emergency and disaster administration is â€Å"to moderate in the most pragmatic way the ex tent to which the conditions of the affected communities are worsened by a disaster† (Donahue Joyce, 2001, p.730). Directly congruent with this assertion, Donahue and Joyce, (2001) retaliate, â€Å"governments and their disaster managers undertake many actions to support this goal, both pre-disaster (to foretell potential damage) and post-disaster (to correct actual damage)† (p.731). Nevertheless, the traits of disasters hamper these great concerns of disaster and emergency management arm of government. Disasters destroy an extensive portion of the property of a given jurisdiction of a nation or state besides impairing the health of the population affected in such magnitudes and rates that are beyond the capacity of a government to avoid or avert. The repercussion for this is, â€Å"coping with them drains most, if not all, of the jurisdiction’s manpower, equipment, supplies, and money† (Donahue Joyce, 2001, p.731). A challenge is amplified by the unpred ictability and uncertainty of magnitudes of damages likely to be caused by the anticipated disasters such as earthquakes and hurricanes. Essentially, natural disasters are hard to predict leave alone to prevent. Hence, the only possible intervention is to evacuate people from disaster-prone areas. Unfortunately, it is impossible to evacuate infrastructures such as houses, health care centers, water supply systems, roads, railway lines, power supply lines, and others. This claim implies that, no matter how a government emergency and disaster management apparatus may be able to predict the occurrence of natural disasters, it is impossible to escape the resulting implications of the disaster. The implications result in the erosion of public resources beyond the rate at which the government may be able to replenish without resorting to seeking external help. This assertion perhaps explains the slow responses on some disaster management apparatus in some nations in the event of the occur rence of a disaster. For effective management of any public problem, causative agents of the problems should be possible to identify because, upon identification of causations, their mitigation amounts to success in the management of the actual problem arising from them. Extending this argument to disaster hazards makes it incredibly challenging to identify the hazards that give rise to disasters since â€Å"the causal relationship between hazards and disaster events is poorly understood with risks being hard to measure (Donahue Joyce, 2001, p.732). Disasters are also infrequent. In some situations, the political tenure of a given government may elapse without disasters being experienced. According to Donahue and Joyce, this condition â€Å"locates governments in a quandary about whether, when, and what action to take to manage them† (2001, p.732). Furthermore, testing of disaster policies does not meet the criteria of Mazmanian and Sabatier’s tests for an implementa tion process of policy because disasters constitute intractable challenges, which are impossible to address via statutes assigning requisite resources coupled with making a clarification of responsibility lines. Lindell (2007) amplifies this argument by asserting, â€Å"disaster problems are subject to powerful non-statutory variables such as the level of public support, available administrative and leadership skills, and reigning social-economic conditions† (p.92). This argument agrees with the case that lack of a comprehensive and unified definition of the situation that amounts to disasters makes it impossible for derivation of appropriate disasters and emergency response mechanisms. Management of emergencies entails a policy subsystem, which houses various functions. All these functions â€Å"demand certain competencies by presenting specific political opportunities through the choice about the distribution of costs and benefits† (Sylves, 2007, p.25). In this conte xt, emergency and disaster management encompasses the distribution of myriads of roles via political bargaining procedure. In case of the United States, the roles of emergency and disaster management are allocated to the DHS. However, it is questionable why scholarly criticism of the effectiveness of the DHS to manage emergencies and disasters is appropriate. Donahue and Joyce respond to this question by informing, â€Å"Public officials do not allocate responsibility for design and implementation of public policy based on a comprehensive evaluation of the competency of each level government† (2001, p.735). Nevertheless, this claim does not imply that a public official is merely a self-interested actor who takes the issues of public interest in a manner that is effective and efficient. Consequently, interactions between behavioral incentives and functional competencies in the determination of the appropriate subsystem of disaster policy are immensely complex (Holdeman, 2012, Para.1).  Stemming from the above argument, Donahue and Joyce assert, â€Å"Aspects of contemporary emergency management practice are coherent applications of fundamental principles of fiscal federalism and functional theory† (2001, p.733). However, it is arguable that national governments including the United States through appropriate emergency and disaster management apparatus such as DHS engage in programs for management of emergencies and disasters, precisely recovery and responses that are prescribed by the functional theory. If this is the case, how effective is DHS in the management of disasters and emergencies? The next section discusses this query in the context of the developed theoretical paradigms on disaster management. Effectiveness of Department of Home Land Security Drawing from the literature review, the characteristics of disasters do not give the government an opportunity to prepare for responding to disasters and emergencies only when they are anticipat ed to occur. Since a disaster can strike any time, the most proactive way of responding to disasters is to have an all-time disaster preparedness national apparatus. Therefore, the occurrence of disasters has led to the creation of agencies and other apparatus to facilitate emergency preparedness in the US. These agencies are the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Following the September 2001 attacks, the US found it imperative to implement policies, which will facilitate disaster preparedness and management. The need is essential upon the consideration of the mandates of both the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). DHS is equipped with numerous resources in order to gather information on the factors, which might have an influence on the safety of the US. This case enables the relevant stakeholders to be aware of the potential disasters, which might compromise the countryâ₠¬â„¢s security prior to their occurrence. The claim further allows the authority to implement measures to counter the disasters’ effects hence protecting the inhabitants. FEMA is a section in DHS, which is mandated to coordinate disaster management that is beyond the capabilities of local and state apparatus. This case ensures that there is a plan to counter the effects of devastating disasters.  Theoretically, the development of policy leading to the creation of FEMA and DHS creates the perception that the two organs can respond to all forms of emergencies and disasters. Indeed, this is an anticipation of the public. From the dimension of the criticism of scholars, the question of whether DHS is prepared to handle emergencies and disasters in case another catastrophe strikes America (Wormuth, 2009, p.95) remains crucial. McEntire (2004) is also inclined to the perception that DHS may not be may well prepared to handle all forms of disasters that may strike America after th e September 2002 attacks (p.12). The author proposes that, from the DHS perspective point of view, â€Å"vulnerability to disasters is due to cultural misunderstandings, permeable borders, fragile infrastructure, and weak disaster management institutions† (p. 12). What this means is that DHS is ineffective in managing disasters and emergencies. Therefore, it is crucial to make an effort to â€Å"correct domestic and foreign policy mistakes† (Lindell, Tierney, Perry, 2001, p.36). However, determining the effectiveness of the DHS from this perspective is inadequate because, as established in the literature review section, disasters are unpredictable. Some natural disasters, such as hurricanes and earthquakes, cannot be avoided. Consequently, one of the adequate ways of determining how effective DHS is in terms of responding to disasters is through the introspection of the manner in which it conducts the rescue and relief missions. Another, approach for evaluation of the effectiveness of DHS is through the examination of how DHS is capable of precisely predicting areas that would be impacted by disasters. From this basis, DHS can be argued as being highly effective (Wormuth, 2009, p.103).  However, Abc NEWS does not agree with the above argument since it maintains that the US remains vulnerable to both fabricated and natural disasters. For instance, Abc NEWS claims that, following the outbreak of smallpox, the government maintained that it acquired adequate vaccines to cater for all people in the US. However, New York academy of medicine â€Å"finds the government’s actual preparedness plans to be deeply flawed† (Abc NEWS, 2005, Para.6). This assertion raises the question of whether the US is capable of doing that given that its mandates extend beyond mitigation of emergencies attributed to terrorism: this being the main occurrence that led to its establishment to include management of disasters associated to natural catastrophes su ch as diseases outbreaks. This claim does not regard the massive awareness of the capability of the DHS to manage disastrous incidences in the US. After the September 2011 incident, the federal government of the United States spent billions of dollars to develop means and mechanisms of preventing future occurrence of a similar disaster in the future. Unfortunately, Hurricane Katrina struck, leaving massive destructions to property. Indeed, â€Å"president Bush agreed to take full responsibility for the slow and flawed response to Hurricane Katrina† (Abc NEWS, 2005, Para.1). Upon acceptance of these responsibilities, some people are inclined to the argument that assuming responsibility exemplified recognition of the ineffectiveness of the US’ disaster management apparatus in achieving its mandates. The criticism by Abc NEWS is consistent with the discussion of the nature of natural disasters. It was impossible for the DHS to avoid its occurrence. However, upon its appea rance, DHS should have responded speedily to reduce the impacts of the disasters as part of its mandate. Unfortunately, it failed. Since 1990, FEMA was charged with pursuing all-hazard-disasters and emergency management approach in matters of development of mechanisms of disaster preparedness and response. Therefore, the role of FEMA has been ensuring the US is prepared for various disasters coupled with mitigating them no matter their causes.  The inclusion of the FEMA in the department of homeland security created a conflict of mandates between the two organs, which were then required to work together. Before the merging of the two, FEMA emerged as incredibly useful in responding to natural disasters. While in the merged state, arguably, FEMA became â€Å"highly indebted in preparing for mechanism of responding to terrorism though less effective in performing its traditional mission of responding to natural disasters as time, effort, and attention were inevitably diverted to ot her tasks within the larger organization† (Wormuth, 2009, p.105: Jenkins, 2003, p. 21). Should this exposition then serve to explain the reluctance in responding to the 2005 Hurricane Katrina disaster?  The above question can perhaps be well answered upon consideration of the roles that were played by FEMA in responding to Hurricane Andrew in 1992. FEMA was able to react speedily to offer support, rescue, and relief to all people who were affected by Hurricane Andrew. Why did this not happen in 2005 during the disaster of Hurricane Katrina? Arguably, the merging of DHS with FEMA influenced the capacity of FEMA to work as an independent body. In this light, Nicholson (2005) argues, â€Å"FEMA will likely perform its homeland security mission at least as (if not more) effectively as an independent agency than as part of a department of homeland security† (p.11). Independency is crucial since the nature of disaster makes it imperative for a quick action to be taken witho ut deep consultations.  The occurrence of the terrorist attack of 2001 may also have eroded the effectiveness of DHS and FEMA to respond to natural disasters. Arguably, from the public concern point of view, incidences in which the safety of the American is interfered with by forces outside their territorial boundaries attract more public interest and fear compared with internal forces such as natural disasters. Consequently, the effectiveness of both FEMA and DHS in responding to Hurricane Katrina may be attributed to the conglomeration of the disaster management organs under FEMA and over-concentration on putting in place mechanisms of developing preparedness to disasters associated with terrorist attacks. Therefore, the emergence of new forms of accidents truncates into the erosion of effectiveness in responding to other kinds of disasters. This argument gains weight by considering, â€Å"the United States has been well behind most industrialized countries in obtaining supplie s of the one medicine that works against the bird flu† (Abc NEWS, 2005, Para. 17). Nevertheless, given that some disasters are inevitable and that their probabilities of occurrence are hard to determine, the degree of responding immediately when they occur needs not to be an indicator of the capacity of the degree of effectiveness of a disaster management apparatus, mainly if the disasters were not predicted in good time. The claim holds because, upon the occurrence of a disaster or an emergency within nations, making of a responsible logistical arrangement is necessary at least over a short period following the occurrence of a disaster or an emergency. However, the speed at which DHS and FEMA responded to hurricane Katrina questions the effectiveness of these organs in responding to disasters that are different from terrorism attacks. Conclusion Many nations across the globe encounter emergencies and disasters. In the paper, disasters were defined as calamitous emergency even ts that are caused by human beings or by nature and which have social and economic negative implications. It was argued that, although disasters are of different magnitudes, a common characteristic is that they damage the general welfare of the populations they affect. Due to the magnitude of the damages that are caused by disasters, the government is the chief instrument that takes the responsibility of providing aid to the people affected within its jurisdiction through emergency and disaster management apparatus created by the government. The device develops a means and or a mechanism of the emergency and disaster preparedness, response, relief, and rescue. As evidenced by the paper, the concern of each of these elements depends on the period of progression of the disaster from before it has occurred to after it has happened.  In the US, the roles and the responsibility of emergency and disaster preparedness, relief, rescue, and response fall on the department of homeland secur ity and FEMA. While FEMA is a central agency within DHS, the DHS was constituted following the September 2001 terrorists attack as one of the mechanism of restructuring the disaster managing system of the US to enhance better disasters preparedness, response, and relief in the future not only from natural disasters and calamities such as diseases outbreaks but also from terrorist attacks. From the basis of the mandates of DHS, the focus of this paper was to scrutinize the effectiveness of DHS through the articulation of theoretical paradigms on emergency and disaster management. In this extent, it had been argued that, even though the literature on emergency and disaster management provides strong evidence that some disasters are unpredictable, infrequent, and enormous to the extent that they constrain resources available to the government, DHS has suffered inefficiencies in the management of disasters and emergencies. A strong case for holding this position is the sluggish response by DHS to the 2005 hurricane Katrina disaster compared to the rapid response to Hurricane Andrew in 1992 by FEMA. Reference List Abbott, B. (2005). A legal guide to Homeland Security and Emergency Management for State and Local Governments. Chicago, IL: American Bar Association. Abc NEWS. (2005). Unprepared for disaster: experts say United States may not be prepared for natural or man-made calamities. Web. Arata, C., et al. (2000). Coping with Technological Disaster: An Application of the Conservation of Resources Model to the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 13(3), 23-39. Bumgarner, J. (2008). Emergency Management: a Reference Handbook. Santa Barbra, CA: ABC-CLIO, Inc. Donahue, K., Joyce, G. (2001). A Framework for Analyzing Emergency Management with an Application to Federal Budgeting. Public Administration Review, 61(6), 728-740. Enarson, E., et al (2003). A Social Vulnerability Approach to Disasters. Emmitsburg, Maryland: Emergency Management Institute, Fed eral Emergency Management Agency. Evans, J., Drabek, E. (2004). Theories Relevant To Emergency Management versus A Theory of Emergency Management (Monograph No. 80208-2948). Denver, Colorado: University of Denver. Hansen, R., Schramm, D. (1993). Aim Scope of Disaster Management. Hoboken: John Wiley and Sons. Holdeman, E. (2012). Emergency Management Is a Complicated Profession [(Opinion)]. Web. Jenkins, P. (2003). Image of Terror: What We Can and Cannot Know about Terrorism. New York, NY: Aldine de Gruyter. Lindell, M. (2007). Emergency Management. Hoboken: John Wiley and Sons. Lindell, M., Tierney, K., Perry, R. (2001). Facing the Unexpected: Disaster Preparedness and Response in the United States. Washington, DC: Joseph Henry Press. McEntire, D. (2003). Epistemological Problems in Emergency Management: Theoretical Dilemmas and Implications Epistemological Problems in Emergency Management: Theoretical Dilemmas and Implications (Monograph No. 76203-0617). Denton, Texas: Universi ty of North Texas. McEntire, D. (2004). The Status of Emergency Management Theory: Issues, Barriers, and Recommendations for Improved Scholarship. Paper Presented at the FEMA Higher Education Conference. FEMA: Higher Education Conference. McEntire, D. (2007). Disciplines, Disasters, and Emergency Management. Springfield, Illinois: Charles C. Thomas, LTD. Nicholson, W. (2003). Emergency Response and Emergency Management Law: Cases and Materials. Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas, LTD. Nicholson, W. (2005). Homeland Security Law and Policy. Springfield, IL: Charles C Thomas, Publisher LTD. Smith, F. (2006). Budgeting for disasters—part I. Overview of the problem. The Public Manager, 35(1), 11-19. Sylves, R. (2007). A Prà ©cis’ on Political Theory and Emergency Management (Monograph). Newark, DE 19716: University of Delaware. Varghese, M. (2002). Disaster Recovery. Boston: Course Technology. Wormuth, C. (2009). The Next Catastrophe: Ready or Not? Washington Quarterly, 3 2(1), 93-106. This research paper on The Department of Homeland Security and its Impacts on the United States’ Emergency Preparedness: Success or Failure was written and submitted by user Keaton Irwin to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

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Eighteen combat-ready special forces, wearing assault black, jump packs and combat gear, stare down the deep end of a greasy ramp into the night sky. Village lights flicker 19,000 feet below. The STRIKE FORCE LEADER signals to his team. Without a moment's hesitation, they dive into the darkness and plummet toward earth. EXT. MANSION - NIGHT A military GUARD, old Soviet-style uniform, rounds the corner of the large estate toting an AK-47. A red laser dot appears briefly on his forehead and, after a beat, the red dot seems to bleed. The Guard collapses dead. Two other GUARDS are dispatched with single, silenced shots. A Strike Team member at a junction box awaits a signal. Through infra-red binoculars the strike Force Leader watches his assault troops as they take positions. STRIKE FORCE LEADER(into headset/in Russian)GO! On the estate - as the power goes out. The team on the mansion's front porch pops the door and pours in. INT. FIVE TEAM MEMBERS as they rush a stairway in phalanx formation. They nearly knock over an old lady, who in turn lets out a blood curdling scream. UPSTAIRS CORRIDOR - The team kicks open a door. Rushes into the room. INT. BEDROOM - Assault weapons pointed at the bed. The soldiers yank back bedsheets to reveal IVAN STRAVANAVITCH, a middle-aged man and his half-naked 18-year-old concubine. SOLDIER Get up, now! Up! The soldiers pull Stravanavitch to his feet and haul him out of the room. FOLLOWING - As they push down the hallway. MANSION SECURITY GUARDS rally with haphazard gunfire. Out come the strike force's flash-bang grenades. Exploding everywhere, disorienting Stravanavitch's men. Signal flares burn as a helicopter descends on the position. The Strike Team evacuates across the field and forces a struggling Stravanavitch into the low-hovering copter. The commandos swiftly board the craft as a handful of Stravanavitch's guards break into the clearing. They open fire. And the mount... Free Essays on Air One Free Essays on Air One Eighteen combat-ready special forces, wearing assault black, jump packs and combat gear, stare down the deep end of a greasy ramp into the night sky. Village lights flicker 19,000 feet below. The STRIKE FORCE LEADER signals to his team. Without a moment's hesitation, they dive into the darkness and plummet toward earth. EXT. MANSION - NIGHT A military GUARD, old Soviet-style uniform, rounds the corner of the large estate toting an AK-47. A red laser dot appears briefly on his forehead and, after a beat, the red dot seems to bleed. The Guard collapses dead. Two other GUARDS are dispatched with single, silenced shots. A Strike Team member at a junction box awaits a signal. Through infra-red binoculars the strike Force Leader watches his assault troops as they take positions. STRIKE FORCE LEADER(into headset/in Russian)GO! On the estate - as the power goes out. The team on the mansion's front porch pops the door and pours in. INT. FIVE TEAM MEMBERS as they rush a stairway in phalanx formation. They nearly knock over an old lady, who in turn lets out a blood curdling scream. UPSTAIRS CORRIDOR - The team kicks open a door. Rushes into the room. INT. BEDROOM - Assault weapons pointed at the bed. The soldiers yank back bedsheets to reveal IVAN STRAVANAVITCH, a middle-aged man and his half-naked 18-year-old concubine. SOLDIER Get up, now! Up! The soldiers pull Stravanavitch to his feet and haul him out of the room. FOLLOWING - As they push down the hallway. MANSION SECURITY GUARDS rally with haphazard gunfire. Out come the strike force's flash-bang grenades. Exploding everywhere, disorienting Stravanavitch's men. Signal flares burn as a helicopter descends on the position. The Strike Team evacuates across the field and forces a struggling Stravanavitch into the low-hovering copter. The commandos swiftly board the craft as a handful of Stravanavitch's guards break into the clearing. They open fire. And the mount...

The Cold Case of the Keddie Cabin Murders

The Cold Case of the Keddie Cabin Murders On April 11, 1981, 36-year-old Glenna Sue Sharp, her 15-year-old son John, and his 17-year-old friend Dana Wingate were murdered in Cabin 28 at the Keddie Resort, in Keddie, California. It was discovered later that 12-year-old Tina Sharp was missing. Her remains surfaced years later. Before the Murders Sue Sharp and her five children- John, 15, Sheila, 14, Tina, 12, Ricky, 10, and Greg, 5- moved from Quincy to Keddie and rented Cabin 28 five months before the murders. On the evening of April 11, 1981, Sue had given the okay for Ricky and Greg to have their friend, 12-year-old Justin Eason, over to spend the night. Justin was also relatively new to Keddie. He had been living in Montana with his father, but moved in with his mother and stepfather, Marilyn and Martin Smartt, in November 1980. The Smartts lived in Cabin 26, which was just a short distance from the Sharps cabin. Letting Justin spend the night would not be a problem, but if it became one, Sue knew she could always send him home. Plus the house was fairly empty. Sheila had plans to go to a sleepover at a friends house. John and his friend, 17-year-old Dana Wingate, were going to Quincy that night, then coming back to hang out in Johns bedroom in the basement. Tina was over in Cabin 27 watching television, but came home around 10 p.m. The Discovery The following morning Sheila Sharp returned home at around 7:45 a.m. As she opened the door, she immediately noticed an offensive odor that seemed to engulf the room. When she stepped into the living room, it took her mind a moment to comprehend what her eyes were seeing. Her brother John appeared to be bound and lying on his back on the living room floor. There was blood caked around his neck and face. Next to John was a boy, bound and lying face down. It appeared that the boy and John were tied together at their feet. Her eyes then landed on a yellow blanket that was covering what looked like a body. Gripped by fear, Sheila ran to the neighbors while screaming for help. The investigation into the murders was initially handled by the Plumas County Sheriffs Office. From the start, the investigation was riddled with errors and oversights. To begin with, the crime scene was never properly secured. Even more astounding was the amount of time that it took for the police to realize that Tina Sharp was missing. When the first police officers arrived at the scene, Justin Eason tried to tell them that Tina was missing, but they ignored what the boy was saying. It wasnt until hours later that everyone realized that the 12-year-old daughter of the murdered woman was gone. The Murders Inside Cabin 28, investigators found two kitchen knives, one that had been used with such force that the blade was severely bent. Also found was a hammer, a pellet gun, and a pellet on the living room floor, which led investigators to believe that the pellet gun was also used in the attacks. Each victim had been bound with several feet of medical tape and electrical appliance wires removed from appliances in the home and extension cords. There was no medical tape at home before the murders, indicating that one of the attackers brought it in to help bind the victims. An examination of the victims was conducted. Sue Sharps lifeless body was found under the yellow blanket. She was wearing a robe, and her underwear had been removed and forced into her mouth. Also in her mouth was a ball of tape.   The underwear and tape were held in place with an extension cord that was also tied around her legs and ankles. Both Sue and John Sharp had been beaten with a claw hammer and stabbed multiple times in their bodies and throat. Dana Wingate was also beaten, but with a different hammer. He had been strangled to death. There was considerable blood on the living room floor, and drops of blood on Tinas bed. The investigation pointed to rape as the motivation behind kidnapping Tina, instead of murdering her in the home with the others. More evidence found included a bloody footprint that was discovered in the yard and knife marks in some of the walls of the home. The Investigation While the brutal attacks inside Cabin 28 were going on, Sues sons Ricky and Greg and their friend Justin Eason were sleeping undisturbed in the boys bedroom. The boys were found unharmed in the room the following morning after the murders.   A woman and her boyfriend, who were in the cabin next door to the Sharps cabin, were woken up at around 1:30 a.m. by what they described as  muffled  screams. The sound was so disturbing that the couple got up and looked around. When they were unable to determine where the screams were coming from, they went back to bed. It seems impossible that screams woke the neighbors, but did not disturb the boys that were in the same house where the screams originated. Also perplexing is why the killers chose not to harm the boys when any one of them could have been pretending to be asleep and later identified the perpetrators. A Possible Break in the Case The Plumas County Sheriffs Office questioned anyone who could have heard or witnessed something that could help solve the case. Among those that they interviewed were the Sharps neighbor, Justin Easons stepfather, Martin Smartt. What he told investigators made him a prime suspect in the crime. According to Smartt, on the night of the murders, a friend of his by the name of Severin John â€Å"Bo† Boubede was staying with the Smartts on a temporary basis. He said he and Boubede first met a few weeks earlier at the Veterans Administration Hospital, where they were both receiving treatment for posttraumatic stress disorder. Smartt claimed to suffer from PTSD as a result of his time spent fighting in Vietnam. He went on to say that earlier in the evening of April 11, he, his wife, Marilyn and Boubede, decided to go to the Backdoor Bar for a few drinks.   Smartt worked as a chef at the Backdoor Bar, but it was his night off. On the way to the bar, the group stopped in on Sue Sharp and asked her if she wanted to join them for drinks. Sue told them no, so they left for the bar. At the bar, Smartt complained angrily to the manager about the music that was playing. They left shortly afterward and went back to the Smartts cabin. Marilyn watched television, then went to bed. Smartt, still angry about the music, called the manager and complained again. He and Boubede then went back to bar for more drinks. Thinking that they now had a prime suspect, the Plumas County sheriff contacted the Department of Justice in Sacramento. Two DOJ investigators, Harry Bradley and P.A. Crim, conducted additional interviews on Martin and Marilyn Smartt and Boubede. During the interview with Marilyn, she told the investigators that she and Martin separated the day after the murders. She said that he was short-tempered, violent, and abusive. After the interviews with the Smartts and Boubede were completed and Martin was polygraphed, the DOJ investigators decided that none of them were involved with the murders. Marilyn Smartt was interviewed again at a later date. She told investigators that Martin Smartt hated John Sharp. She also admitted that early in the morning of April 12, she saw Martin burning something in the fireplace. Back to Justin Eason As time went on, Justin Eason began to change his story. He had told the investigators that he was asleep during the murders, as were the other two boys, and that he did not hear anything.   In a later interview, he described in detail a dream that he had where he was on a boat and saw John Sharp and Dana fighting with a man with long black hair, a mustache, and black glasses, who was carrying a hammer. The man threw John overboard, and then Dana, who he said was very drunk.   He went on to describe seeing a body that was covered in a sheet lying on the bow. He looked under the sheet and saw Sue, who had a knife cut in her chest. He tried to help her by patching the wound with a rag, which he ended up throwing into the water. In reality, Sue Sharp did have a knife wound in her chest. Another time, while being polygraphed, Eason told the polygrapher that he thought that he saw the murders. He said that a noise woke him up and that got up and looked through the door into the living room. He said he saw Sue Sharp laying on the sofa and that there were two men standing in the middle of the room. He described the men, one with black and dark glasses, the other with brown hair and wearing army boots. John Sharp and Dana came into the room and began arguing with the two men. A fight broke out, and Dana tried to escape out through the kitchen, but the man with the brown hair hit him with a hammer. John was being attacked by the man with the black hair, and Sue tried to help John. Justin said that this point, he hid behind the door. He then saw the men tying up John and Dana. He also claimed that he saw Tina come into the living room holding a blanket and asking what was going on. The two men grabbed her and took her out the back door as Tina tried to call for help. He said the man with the black hair used a pocket knife to cut Sue in the middle of her chest. Justin worked with a sketch artist and came up with composites of the two men. A Former Neighbor On June 4, 1981, investigators Bradley and Crim interviewed a man who lived in Cabin 28, but moved two weeks before the murders. He said he did not know the Sharps, but that three weeks before the murders he heard Sue Sharp and an unknown man yelling at each other. They continued to fight for another 30 minutes, screaming obscenities back and forth at each other. DOJ Investigators Get a Slap From the Locals When details of the interviews that Bradley and Crim had conducted with Martin Smartt and Boubede came to light, the Plumas County authorities were livid. Bradley and Crim were accused of sloppy work and failing to fact check or to pursue clarification for obvious discrepancies made by Smartt and Boubede. During the initial interview with Crim, BouBede said that he had worked as a Chicago police officer for 18 years, but retired after being shot while in the line of duty. This was an obvious lie which could have quickly been spotted had Crim paid attention to Boubedes date of birth.  Boubede lied about how long he had lived in Kiddie by adding two weeks to the time.  He said Marilyn was his niece, which was a lie. He claimed Marilyn was awake when he and Smartt came home after their second trip to the bar. Had anyone been paying attention, they would have caught that it contradicted what Marilyn said, which was that she was asleep when the two men came home. BouBede said he never met Sue Sharp, which contradicted what Marilyn said about the three of them stopping at the Sharp house and inviting her for a drink. Bradley and Crim showed a similar lack of energy when interviewing Martin Smartt. In one interview, Smartt said that his stepson Justin Eason might have seen something on the night of the murders, adding, without me detecting him at the end of the sentence. The investigators either missed the implications in Smartts slip up, or they werent listening. Smartt talked to the investigators about the hammers that used in the murder, adding that he had recently lost is own hammer. There were no follow-up interviews with Smartt or BouBede, since the investigators believed that the pair had no involvement in the murders. No longer a prime suspect, Martin Smartt moved to Klamath, California. Boubede returned to Chicago where he scammed several police officers out of money, was caught and almost did prison time, but died before being incarcerated. Tinas Remains In 1984, the cranium part of a skull was found about 30 miles from Keddie. Several months later an anonymous caller told the Butte County Sheriffs office that the skull belonged to Tina Sharp. Another search of the area was made, and a jawbone and several other bones were found. Testing confirmed that the bones belonged to Tina Sharp. The Butte County Sheriffs office gave the original and the backup copy of the recording from the anonymous caller to someone in law enforcement. Since then, both the original and the backup copies have disappeared. A Dead Mans Confession and New Evidence Martin Smartt died in 2000, and not long after his death, his therapist told the Plumas County Sheriffs Office that Smartt had confessed to him that he killed Sue Sharp because she was trying to convince Marilyn to leave him. Smartt never mentioned who killed John, Dana, or Tina. He also told the therapist that it was easy to beat the polygraph, that he and Plumas County Sheriff Doug Thomas were friends, and one time he let Thomas move in with him. On March 24, 2016, a hammer was found that that matches the description of the hammer that Marty Smartt claimed was missing two days after the murders. According to Plumas County Sheriff Hagwood, the location it was found... It would have been intentionally put there. It would not have been accidentally misplaced.

Business Environment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 2

Business Environment - Essay Example These elements may include leadership and management, clientele, technological factors, rules and regulations of a government, competition, financial planning. In addition, marketing strategies, demand and supply within the area of business, the economic inclinations are other factors that influence the business environment (McNamara 1999). Therefore, the is a distinction in both the purpose and objectives of different types of organizations within any business environment. This determines whether the organization is profit or nonprofit based (McNamara 1999). Profit organizations have the sole purpose of generating profits, such that the amount of money the organization is taking out should be less than the amount of money the organization is taking in (McNamara 1999). In addition, the organization leaders or owners may opt to hold s larger portion of the returns after deducting all the expenses such as salaries and benefits to employees, bills, among others (McNamara 1999). Addition ally, in the profit organizations, the management may choose to cut back on running costs in order to maximize profits. For example, the organization may choose to cut back on personnel in case the management feels that they do not require as much personal or in case they want to incorporate more technological advancements (McNamara 1999). In general, the management has the overall decision making capacity and formulate plans that enable the organization maximize on its returns as it acquires its market share within the economic sector. As a result, marketing strategies become vital for profit organizations as its main goal is to maximize its returns through reaching to a larger clientele (McNamara 1999). Examples of profit organization include Coca Cola, Microsoft, Apple, Samsung, among others. On the other hand, the sole purpose of nonprofit organizations is to benefit the society. They are mostly created for specific tasks such as religious, educational, or charitable (Carter 200 8). For the sole purpose of nonprofit organizations is to serve the community, they operate under strict rules and regulations that ban the owners of the organization from taking the profits for their own gain. This means that, nonprofit organizations have laws that allow them to operate some business activities although the proceeds obtained are to benefit the community (McNamara 1999). Therefore, the profits obtained from the business activities is recirculates into the organization in order for it to achieve its mission and objectives for the community (Carter 2008). Therefore, nonprofit organizations not only run some business activities but they obtain their funding from donations from the public or grants from other organizations. The examples of nonprofit organizations include research institutes, foundations, public schools, public universities, museums, public hospitals, professional associations, among others (Justia 2013). Typical real world examples include Red Cross, UN , (Justia 2013). Any organization, whether profit or nonprofit formulated objectives and missions targeting a particular group or clientele. Therefore, any organization has responsibilities to reach their targets. For instance, in case the organization is profit based, then its responsibilities will vary from making sure of the

Cultural health style Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Cultural health style - Essay Example Access to highly advanced medical technologies and to good medical services are the two general health disparities quite common to African Americans. Quaye (2005) remarks that there are barriers in accessing medical care especially to the African-American cultural group. And these barriers go beyond the economic facet. Access to the health care system in America is racially embedded. Particularly to pregnant women, â€Å"African American women are twice as likely as whites to receive no health care at all† (as cited in Quaye, 2005, p. 2). Cockerham further notes that if pregnant African American women were ever to receive a medical care service, it only occurred in the last trimester of their pregnancies (as cited in Quaye, 2005). Johnson (1999) admits that it is not always possible for African Americans to access and receive medical services and even to â€Å"obtain the care they need† (p. 5). Besides the lack of accessing the health services characterized in the Ameri can medical setting, the African Americans hardly receive the services that are substantially high standard, let alone proper to their medical needs. For instance, African Americans undergo an amputation procedure which is â€Å"3.6 times as frequent among Blacks as whites† (as cited in Quaye, 2005, p. 2).

Pakistan Flood Essay Example for Free

Pakistan Flood Essay The Pakistan flood of 2010 happened on Monday the 26th July 2010 in the villages Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan and Gilgit-Baltistan. Causes The heavy rains were caused by a monsoon depression (also called a monsoon low) that formed over the Bay of Bengal on July 24, crossed over India, and reached Pakistan on July 27 Climate change – There was unusually heavy monsoon rains which caused widespread flooding in Pakistan, whilst coinciding in Russia unusually high temperatures ( resulting in a heat wave). Both of which were attributed to global warming. Poor river management Impacts Over 500,000 or more people had been displaced from their homes At least 1,540 people died, 2,088 people had received injuries and 557,226 houses had been destroyed. Infrastructure was destroyed. The Karakoram Highway, which connects Pakistan with China, was closed after a bridge was destroyed. Floodwater destroyed the health care infrastructure leaving people vulnerable to water-borne disease Millions of crops were destroyed leaving a severe shortage of food across the country Responses * petitions were immediately launched by international organisation, like the UK’s Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC)– and the UN (United Nations) – to help Pakistanis hit by the floods * the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) provided support in disaster management authorities to assist evacuate populations from affected areas of southern Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, * Many charities and aid agencies provided help, including the Red Crescent and Medicines Sans Frontiers * Pakistan’s government also tried to raise money to help the huge number of people affected * But there were complaints that the Pakistan government was slow to respond to the crisis, and that it struggled to cope * Foreign Governments donated millions of dollars, and Saudi Arabia and the  USA promised $600 million in flood aid. But many people felt that the richer foreign governments didn’t do enough to help * The UN’s World Food Programme provided crucial food aid. But, by November 2010, they were warning that they might have cut the amount of food handed out, because of a lack of donations from richer countries Effects There were both long-term and short-term effects, they include: Short-term:- * At least 1600 people died * Aid couldn’t get through because of the failing infrastructure 45 major bridges and thousands of kilometres of roads were destroyed or badly damaged, limiting the aid supplies reaching the areas badly affected * loss of cattle resulted in loss of dairy products * Access to health care, such as maternity care was difficult due to the damaged infrastructure Long-term:- * 20 million Pakistanis were affected (over 10% of the population), 6 million needed food aid * Whole villages were swept away, and over 700,000 homes were damaged or destroyed * Hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis were displaced, and many suffered from malnutrition and a lack of clean water * 5000 miles of roads and railways were washed away, along with 1000 bridges * 160,000km2 of land were affected. That’s at least 20% of the country * About 6.5 million acres of crops were washed away in Punjab and Sindh provinces Future Local authority-run disaster management forums, including local men and women were set up to assess future flood situation and created Community Rapid Response Teams to plan search and rescue activities. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) produced a plan to  employ local tradesmen to help reconstruct shelters, etc which in turn provided an income for those people this will encourage the local economy to grow. Reconstructing and strengthening the irrigation band was deemed crucial to protect villages in the future. A plan to rebuild embankment and well maintain them was created.

Online Communities - Chat Rooms and Discussion Boards Essay example --

Online Communities - Chat Rooms and Discussion Boards To those who have never experienced an online community they may seem pointless, a waste of time or simply childish. However, for those that have expanded beyond the traditional means of communication such as, talking on the telephone or conversing face-to-face, online communities offer a new and exciting means of communication. They offer a chance to meet others, gain advice, voice an opinion, defend an argument, or to simply relax and have a little fun. Acknowledging both points of view, I decided to explore the world of online communities for myself. For my online community I decided to enter a Yahoo, country music, chat room. Through Yahoo, there were many different chat rooms you could enter ranging from sports, to current events. However, I choose to enter the country music room because I have listened to country music all my life and I thought who I would best relate to those that would be in a country music room. Within the country music topic there were fourteen different rooms; I choose room four because it contained the most people: 44 active members. Therefore, I assumed that it would be the most active. Inside the chat room I was surprised at what I found. The first thing that I noticed was the names of the chatters. Each had some sort of country name such as, â€Å"rodeocowgirl† or â€Å"bullridingcowboy.† While looking through the conversations that were occurring I noticed that no one was discussing country music. In fact, the entire time I was in the chat room the topic rarely even appeared. I tried writing a post that said, â€Å"Does anyone know who sang the song ‘Thunder Rolls’?† About five minutes later, I received a response that said â€Å"Garth ... ...meone could become obsessed. Everyone seemed to know each other so well and it seemed as if chatting through this chat room was their way of socializing. Granted these individuals were not gaining an educational aspect from the chat room, however, they were gaining a sense of being part of something. They could express feeling, express viewpoints, vent anger or simply socialize with out being judged. No matter what was said within the chat room participants returned the next day eager to socialize. Chatting online is a huge part of these people’s lives; online communities are their source of interaction. Some people value face-to-face communication and some turn to more recent forms of technology. In my opinion your communication selection should fit your own personal needs. You should use whatever source you find most convenient, efficient, and comfortable.

Development and behavior in the environment Essay

Life is a changing process, from the moment of conception to the moment of death, and there are many complex processes of development that a human being experienced. People have the inherent ability to enlarge, to change and to develop in the entire way of living. People show an underlying continuity from one time of life to another. In other way, they change in one area with aspects of both continuousness and change is considered personality development. Human development is the scientific study of the quantitative and qualitative ways by which people change overtime. A procedure of becoming something distinct while insom respects are alike. Perhaps what is uniquely human is what we remain in an unending state of development. Life is always an incomplete business, and death is only a cessation. Human Behavior to the Environment According to Papalia (1992) people are not passive sponges, soaking up influences. They actively shape their own environment and they respond to the biotic and abiotic factors in their environment. In the development of all new behavior patterns, even where learning is an important factor, no amount of stimulation or practice will produce the behavior pattern until certain maturation has been reached. Therefore, it is not the behavior itself that matures, for behavior implies an interaction between the individuals and component in his environment. To study broader aspects of human behavior, it is important to consider the fact that heredity does not operate in void but that it is steadily limited and modified by environment. Theories and Concepts Jean Piaget: Cognitive Stage Theory The Swiss theoretician Jean Piaget (1896-1980) was the most prominent advocate of the organism perspective. Much of what we know about the way children is due to his creative inquiry. He built complex theories about cognitive development; changes in children thought processes that results in a growing ability to acquire and use knowledge about their world. Piaget believed that from infancy to adolescence, children advance through a predictable series of cognitive stages. Freud’ s Stages of Psychosocial Development Freud believed that personality is precise formed in the first few years of life, as children deal with conflicts between their biological, sexually related urges and the requirement of society. Freud saw that human personality is made up of three elements, which he called the id, the ego, and the superego. In these elements we will be convinced that humans are urge to do things in their own perspective depending on what kind of element they had adapted from the environment dominate them, this also answers the questions why each person is totally unique from the other. Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936) Behaviorism In 1906, Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov has discovered a basic form of learning called classical conditioning, also referred to as Pavlov’s conditioning theory, in which an organism comes to associate one stimulus with one another. Latest research integrate this theory that this basic process can account for how people form certain preferences and fears. Environment All the conditions in the world that influence behavior, growth, development is what we define as environment, it includes the internal (cells, tissues, organs and system of the body), and social ( the people around us both within our family ties, jobs, school and those that seems to give a big influence in our daily living). The interaction of heredity environment determine human traits and characteristics. Heredity determines how high level of development a given environment can bring about in a given period of time. Environment determines how effective a certain heredity can be in influencing development over a given period of time. The function of the environment is that it supplies the stimuli that set off patterns of response already prepared by maturation. It also provide situation which are conductive to the person’s learning new patterns of altering old ones. Applied knowledge We will be considering two infant who have different parents lets name them Angie and Charlene, both of their parents work outside the home at full time jobs. Angie’s parents are able to arrange their schedules so that one parent is at home when Angie and her sisters return to school, should the parents be delayed the children go to the neighbor which is a grandmotherly figure. Her parents do their best to give them quality time. Homework is taken seriously by Angie and her parents the reason why Angie at an early age realizes the value of good education. While on the other side Charlene’s parents like his father does not usually stays at home when he is not working, he can be found with friends at a local bar the same way with her mother who have no longer time in cooking their food and depend on fast food as a regular basis. She has difficulty concentrating in school, and spends a good deal of time with friends at a local bar, all of whom enjoy riding the bus downtown to go to the movies. Angie’s parents are giving her maximum support while Charlene is not experiencing the same amiable but firm urge that encourages Angie to move on and develop into capable young adult. In this scenario, I could conclude that attention and time is very important in up bringing a child both psychologically and emotionally. Addiction Everything that the mother takes in makes its way to the new life in her uterus. Drugs may cross the placenta, just as oxygen, carbon dioxide, and water do. The use of drug addicting substances such as marijuana, nicotine, cocaine, caffeine and opiates. The use of marijuana by pregnant women could affect her infant’s nervous system and can lead to birth defects. Drugs and chemical agents cross the placenta affect the embryonic and fetal system. Dynamics of abuse and neglect Adults hurt and neglect children because of various causes including the characteristic of the abuser or neglecter, the victim the family, the community, and the larger culture. Almost of the abusers are not psychotic and do not have criminal personalities; but many are lonely, unhappy, depressed, angry, dissatisfied, isolated and under great stress, or they have health problems that impair their ability to raise their children. Conclusion Human development is not merely an increase in body weight and height of a human being rather it is the total influence of environment and heredity. The behavior of a person to the environment depends mainly on maturation of his mind and capability of the body to out stand adverse condition, from the start of conception of a mother the time the ovum is fertilized by the sperm cell of the father is the beginning of the development Environment participates seventy percent and thirty percent of heredity in the development of a person, many factors should always to be considered to produce a human that will be an asset to the society. Work Cited Forgas, J. P. , and G. H. Bower.(1997) â€Å"Moods Effects on Personality Perception Judgements. Journals of Personality and Social Psychology. New Jersey. Papalia, D. E. and Olds, S. W. (1992) Human Development (International Edition) USA: McGraw Hill, Inc. Snyder, W. and Ooms, T. (Editors) (1998) Empowering Families, Helping Adolescents. U. S. A. : Diane Publishing. Vander, J. W. , Crander, T. L. , Crandell, C. H. (2007) Human Development (8th Ed. ) USA: McGraw Hill, Inc. Zayas, L. H. , Rojas, M. ,and Malgady, R. (1998). Alcohol and drug use, and depression among Hispanic men in early adulthood. American Journal of Community Psychology.

Baker v. Carr (1962)

In 1962, the US Supreme Court had decided over the Baker v. Carr case. The Baker v. Carr case was a landmark US Supreme Court case which at last withdrawn from its political question doctrine to come to a decision about the reapportionment concerns. The said case was brought up by the urban voters in opposition to the Tennessee Secretary of State and Attorney Gen. in the United States District Court of Middle Tennessee. Tennessee was unsuccessful to reallocate the state legislature for about 60 years in spite of the growth of the population and redeployment.Charles Baker was a voter who filed a case against the state-and Joe Carr was a state officer who was in command of elections- in federal district court. Moreover, before the US Supreme Court gives their decision about the case, majority of the legislative districts throughout Ohio and in several states didn’t have the same numbers in terms of their population rates (see â€Å"Baker v. Carr†. The Columbia Encyclopedi a, Sixth Ed. P. 3865, 2004). This would definitely signify that a representative may possibly represent about 100,000 populations in each district whereas the others may possibly represent 500,000.In Ohio, every country had its own right to have a legislator in the Ohio government prior to Baker v. Carr. During 1960, Franklin County had more than 300,000 inhabitants whereas Vinton County had merely 11,000 populaces. In the previous system, every country has a legislator but in Baker v. Carr case, each county did not longer have the right to receive a legislator (see â€Å"Baker v. Carr†. OhioHistoryCentral. org, 2006). The focal points of this study are to:(1) know the historical background on Baker v.Carr case;(2) discuss the facts of the case and its court’s ruling and;(3) be aware of the impact of Baker and Carr case on American government and society.Discussion A. Historical BackgroundThe complainant Charles Baker resided in Shelby County, Tennessee- the county whe re Memphis is situated- and was a Republican. Baker’s protest was that even though the Tennessee State Constitution necessitated that legislative districts be redrawn after 10 years as stated by the federal survey to give districts of substantively even inhabitants, , Tennessee was unable to redistrict since from the population count during 1900.During the court case of Baker, the district of Shelby County-where Baker resides- had more populations just like other rural districts have. Baker’s argument pointed out that this inconsistency caused him unable to have the â€Å"equal protection under the laws† as stated by the Fourteenth Amendment. On the other hand, Joe Carr was litigated in his status as the Secretary of States for Tennessee. Joe Carr did not set the district lines because it was done by the state parliament but then, a case was filed against him as the person who was the most liable and accountable for the district maps’ publication and for conducting elections in the state.The State of Tennessee claimed and disputed that legislative districts were fundamentally political and not judicial as had been engrossed by a number of Court’s opinion in Colegrove v. Green in 1946 which Justice Felix Frankfurter announced that: â€Å"Courts ought not to enter this political market† (see â€Å"U. S. Supreme Court: baker v. Carr, 369 U. U. 186 (1962). † Findlaw. com, 2006). B. The Facts of the Case Charles W. Baker and several Tennessee inhabitants suspected that a 1901 decree designed to allocate the seats for the General Assembly of the state was practically disregarded.The lawsuit of Baker comprehensively discussed on how the reapportionment efforts of Tennessee disregard substantial and important economic development and population modification within the state (see â€Å"Baker v. Carr 369 U. S. 186 (1962)†. Oyez. org). C. Court’s Ruling C. 1 The Laws Applied: *U. S. Const. amend. XIV; U. S. C onst. art. III *42 U. S. C. 1983; Tenn. Const. art.The most awaited result was finally given in March 1962, almost a year after it was originally disputed. The ruling of Baker v. Carr was considered as one of the major wrenching in the history of the Court.The Supreme Court stated that the federal courts have the authority to regulate and decide the constitutionality of the voting of a state’s districts as stated in a 6-2 ruling. Justice William J. Brennan, Jr. put in writing the common opinion, declaring that the constitutional right of the complainant or plaintiff to receive their votes count impartially provided them the essential and required lawful interest to carry out the court case. He disputed that the case did not include a â€Å"political question† which stopped and prohibited judicial review.A court may possibly regulate the constitutionality of the apportionment decisions’ of the State without intervening with the political judgments of the legislat ure. Moreover, Baker v. Carr case was sent back to the federal court (see â€Å"Baker v. Carr (1962). Infoplease, Pearson Education 2005). Justice William O. Douglas wrote down conforming judgment. He announced that: â€Å"If a voter does not anymore have the full constitutional value of his franchise (right to vote), and the legislative branch fails to take appropriate restorative action, the doors of the courts must be open† (see â€Å"Baker v. Carr (1962). Infoplease, Pearson Education 2005).However, in a conflicting view, Justice John Harlan II disputed and wrote that: â€Å"The federal equal protection clause does not prevent a State from choosing any electoral legislative structure it thinks best suited to the interests, temper, and customs of its people. If a state chose to distribute electoral strength among geographical units, rather than according to a census of population is†¦ a rational decision policy†¦ entitled to equal respect from this Court† (see â€Å"Baker v. Carr (1962).  Infoplease, Pearson Education 2005).ConclusionThe court declared that there were no questions that need to be answered in Baker v. Carr case and the parliamentary apportionment was a justified concern. Justice William Brennan had cited previous cases in which the Court interfered to amend constitutional infringements in issues which pertain to state government and the officials by whom state affairs are organized (see â€Å"Baker v. Carr 369 U. S. 186 (1962)†. Oyez. org). D. The impact of Baker and Carr case on American Government and SocietyThe impact of Baker and Carr case on American government and society was that the said landmark decision had made a way for many lawsuits on legislative apportionment. Because of the Baker v. Carr case, by the year of 1967, voters from Ohio altered and revised the state constitution. The revision made a ninety-nine seat state House and a thirty-three seat state Senate. The said revision set up and cr eated too that every representative and senator should receive about the similar number of populations as required by the US Supreme Court. The Baler and Carr case and the modified constitution of Ohio was an uninterrupted outcome of urbanization.In the middle of the 20th century, several individuals departed from rural areas and transferred to cities. The major cause for the said relocation was the deteriorating chances in the countryside. While in the cities, they ever more provided good high paying jobs and various employment opportunities. In Baker v. Carr case, the U. S. Supreme Court tried to make an effort to amend the subsequent dilemmas in political representation (see â€Å"Baker v. Carr†. OhioHistoryCentral. org, 2006).References:1. â€Å"Baker v. Carr†. OhioHistoryCentral. org, 2006. http://www. ohiohistorycentral. org/entry. php? rec=1399.2. â€Å"U. S. Supreme Court: baker v. Carr, 369 U. U. 186 (1962). † Findlaw. com, 2006. http://caselaw. lp. fin dlaw. com/scripts/getcase. pl? court=US&vol=369&invol=186.3. â€Å"Baker v. Carr 369 U. S. 186 (1962)†. Oyez. org. http://www. oyez. org/oyez/resource/case/25/.4. â€Å"Baker v. Carr (1962). Infoplease, Pearson Education 2005. http://www. infoplease. com/us/supreme-court/cases/ar02. html.5. â€Å"Baker v. Carr†. The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Ed. P. 3865. Columbia University Press, New York, 2004).

Airline Terrorism Essays - Access Control, Airport Security

Airline Terrorism Essays - Access Control, Airport Security Airline Terrorism Whether we would like to admit it or not, aircraft terrorism is a very real and deadly subject. Inside nothing more than a small suitcase, a carefully assembled explosive can bring an ending to the lives of countless men, women, and children, with no preference or regard to age, sex, and religion. In a single moment and flash, families are torn apart as their loved ones become victims of terrorism. As the airline price wars have continued to rage, the amount of fliers increase at phenomenal rates. The airports are filled to maximum capacity with people all interested in just surviving the long lines and finally finding relaxation in their aircraft seats with the help of a cold drink and pillow. Sadly, it has come to the point where one must consider if the passengers should be relaxing. The half a billion passengers that rush through a terminal each year are completely unaware of how much trust they are putting in a small, antiquated machine that scans their luggage. Teams of employees working for the government have been successful in passing through metal detectors armed with knives, guns, and even a discharged hand grenade. Reports Doug Smith of USA Today: The fact that the people manning these machines and airport gates make less than someone at McDonalds and usually are uneducated average Dicks or Janes, may be part of the problem. In most of England, the guards are expertly trained and receive high pay. The issue of sabotage and criminal attacks on aircraft is one that is horrifying to contemplate. However, the potential is ever present and cannot be swept under some political carpet. The statistics as provided by the NTSB and FAA are ugly, and the results of these accidents uglier still. The bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, on December 21, 1988 and another similar bombing on an Air India flight in June, 1985 are forever etched in our memories. Around 1,000 aircraft passengers have been killed in the past ten years due to terrorist bomb attacks on civilian aircraft (NTSB). If the yet to be solved TWA flight 800 mystery proves to be a victim as well, the number soars to over 1,300 (NTSB). The government is aware of the problems, but chooses to act after the fact, despite the countless warnings that precede a massacre given to them by safety experts in the aviation industry. One only needs look at current and past legislation that follows an occurrence. In the next ten years, I believe the likelihood is pretty good that there will be a bombing of a domestic flight. There are too many dissident groups in the world and too many nuts willing to do the unspeakable in order to get into the history books (McGuire). In the book that provides a consumers examination of airline safety, Collision Course, by Ralph Nader, numerous employees voicing the need for improved safety and terrorism countermeasures are quoted. What is so frightening is that examination of the quotations reveals that they are from the mouths of highly respected officials who find themselves tangled in the slow process of instituting new laws to protect travelers by increasing safety regulations. There are two ways to significantly reduce the possibility of such calamities as aircraft bombings. Ideally, security checks would be sufficiently stringent to prevent any bombs from being smuggled on board the plane. Steps are being taken, with passengers having to be matched to their luggage by photo identification prior to departure in the United States. Secondly, a modification of the aircraft should be considered. More specifically, the cargo and baggage holds (St. John). According to the study, Technology Against Terrorism: Structuring Security, by the U.S. Congress, Office of Technology Assessment (January 1992): Explosive devices of the size used in airline terrorist events to date are deadly not because they directly cause catastrophic failure (blow the airplane to pieces), but because they start a domino effect where the aircraft destroys itself. The low level and poor quality of airport and airline security measures mandated by the FARs (Federal Aviation Regulations) have left domestic flights dangerously vulnerable to criminal attacks. Properly applied bomb-resistant materials could save passenger lives in the event of an explosion in

Frances Perkins, First Woman in a Presidential Cabinet

Frances Perkins, First Woman in a Presidential Cabinet Frances Perkins (April 10, 1880 - May 14, 1965) became  the first woman to serve in a presidents cabinet when she was appointed the Secretary of Labor by  Franklin D. Roosevelt. She played a prominent public role throughout Roosevelts 12-year presidency and was instrumental in shaping New Deal policies and major pieces of legislation such as the Social Security Act. Early Life and Education Fannie Coralie Perkins (she would later adopt the first name Frances) was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on April 10, 1880. Her family could trace its roots back to settlers in the 1620s. When she was a child, Perkins father moved the family to Worcester, Massachusetts, where he operated a store that sold stationery. Her parents had little formal education, but her father, in particular, read widely and had educated himself about history and the law. Perkins attended Worcester Classical High School, graduating in 1898. At some point in her teen years, she read How the Other Half Lives by Jacob Riis, the reformer and pioneering photojournalist. Perkins would later cite the book as an inspiration for her lifes work. She was accepted to Mount Holyoke College, though she was fearful of its rigorous standards. She had not considered herself to be very bright, but after working hard to pass a challenging chemistry class, she gained self-confidence. As a senior at Mount Holyoke,  Perkins took a course on American economic history. A field trip to local factories and mills was a requirement of the course. Witnessing firsthand the poor working conditions had a profound effect on Perkins. She realized that workers were being exploited by dangerous conditions, and came to see how injured workers could find themselves forced into a life of poverty. Before leaving college, Perkins helped found a chapter of the National Consumers League. The organization sought to improve working conditions by urging consumers not to purchase products manufactured in unsafe conditions.   Career Beginnings After graduation from Mount Holyoke in 1902, Perkins took teaching jobs in Massachusetts and lived with her family in Worcester. At one point, she rebelled against her familys wishes and traveled to New York City to visit an agency which dealt with helping the poor. She insisted on getting a job interview, but wasnt hired. The director of the organization thought she was naive and presumed that Perkins would be overwhelmed working among the urban poor. After two unhappy years in Massachusetts after college, Perkins applied and was hired for a teaching job at Ferry Academy, a girls boarding school  in Chicago. Once settled in the city, she began visiting Hull House, a settlement house founded and led by noted social reformer Jane Addams. Perkins changed her name from Fannie to Frances and devoted all the time she could to her work at Hull House. After three years in Illinois, Perkins took a job in Philadelphia for an organization that researched social conditions faced by young women and African Americans working in the citys factories. Then, in 1909, Perkins earned a scholarship to attend graduate school at Columbia University in New York City. In 1910, she completed her masters thesis: an investigation of undernourished children attending a school in Hells Kitchen. While completing her thesis, she began working for the New York office of the Consumers League and became active in campaigns to improve working conditions for the citys poor. Political Awakening On March 25, 1911, a Saturday afternoon, Perkins was attending a tea at a friends apartment on Washington Square in New Yorks Greenwich Village. The sounds of a terrible commotion reached the apartment, and Perkins raced a few blocks to the Asch Building on Washington Place. A fire had broken out at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, a clothing sweatshop that employed mostly young immigrant women. Doors kept locked to prevent workers from taking a break trapped the victims on the 11th floor, where ladders of the fire department couldnt reach them. Frances Perkins, in the crowd on a nearby sidewalk, witnessed the horrible spectacle of young women falling to their deaths to escape the flames. The conditions in the factory cost 145 lives. Most of the victims were young working class and immigrant women. The New York State Factory Investigation Commission was formed within months of the tragedy. Frances Perkins was hired as an investigator for the commission, and she was soon leading inspections of factories and reporting on safety and health conditions. The job was aligned with her career goal, and it brought her into a working relationship with Al Smith, a New York City assemblyman who served as the vice-chair of the commission. Smith would later become governor of New York and eventually the Democratic nominee for president in 1928. Political Focus In 1913, Perkins married Paul Caldwell Wilson, who worked in the office of the mayor of New York City. She kept her last name, partly because she was often giving speeches advocating better conditions for workers and she didnt want to risk that her husband would be embarrassed. She had a child that died in 1915, but a year later gave birth to a healthy baby  girl. Perkins assumed she would ease away from her work life and devote herself to being a wife and mother,  perhaps volunteering for various causes. Perkins plan to withdraw from public service changed for two reasons. First, her husband began to suffer bouts of mental illness, and she felt compelled to stay employed. Second, Al Smith, who had become a friend, was elected governor of New York in 1918. It seemed to Smith that women would soon get the vote, and it was a good time to hire a woman for a substantial role in the state government. Smith appointed Perkins to the industrial commission of the New York State Department of Labor.   While working for Smith, Perkins became friends with Eleanor Roosevelt, and her husband, Franklin D. Roosevelt. As Roosevelt was recuperating after contracting polio, Perkins helped him keep in touch with labor leaders and began to advise him on the issues. Appointed by Roosevelt After Roosevelt was elected governor of New York, he appointed Perkins to head the New York State Department of Labor. Perkins was actually the second woman to be in a New York governors cabinet (in Al Smiths administration, Florence Knapp had served briefly as secretary of state). The New York Times noted that Perkins was being promoted by Roosevelt as he believed she had made a very fine record in her post in the state government. During Roosevelts term as governor, Perkins became nationally known as an authority on laws and regulations governing labor and business. When an economic boom ended and the  Great Depression began in late 1929, less than a year into Roosevelts term as governor, Perkins faced a startling new reality.  She immediately began making plans for the future. She took actions to deal with the impact of the Depression in New York State, and she and Roosevelt essentially prepared for how they could take action on a national stage. After Roosevelt was elected president in 1932, he appointed Perkins to be the nations secretary of labor, and she became the first woman to serve in a presidents cabinet.   Role in The New Deal Roosevelt took office on March 4, 1933, stating Americans had nothing to fear but fear itself. The Roosevelt administration immediately went into action to battle the effects of the Great Depression. Perkins led the effort to institute unemployment insurance. She also pushed for higher wages for workers as a measure to stimulate the economy. One of her first major actions was to oversee the creation of the Civilian Conservation Corps, which became known as the CCC. The organization took young unemployed men and put them to work on conservation projects throughout the nation. Frances Perkins  greatest achievement is generally considered her work devising the plan that became the Social Security Act. There was great opposition in the country to the idea of social insurance, but the act successfully passed  through Congress and was signed into law by Roosevelt in 1935. Decades later, in 1962, Perkins gave a speech titled The Roots of Social Security in which she detailed the struggle: Once you get the ear of a politician, you get something real. The highbrows can talk forever and nothing happens. People smile benignly  on them and let it go. But once the politician gets an idea, he deals in getting things done. In addition to her work shaping  legislation, Perkins was at the center of labor disputes. In an era when the labor movement was approaching its peak of power, and strikes were often in the news, Perkins became extremely active in her role as labor secretary. Impeachment Threat In 1939,  conservative members of Congress,  including Martin Dies, the leader  of the  House Committee on Un-American Activities, launched a crusade against her. She  had prevented the speedy deportation of an Australian-born leader of the West Coast longshoremans union, Harry Bridges. He had been accused of being a communist. By extension, Perkins was accused of communist sympathies. Members of Congress moved to impeach Perkins in January 1939, and hearings were held to decide whether impeachment charges were warranted. Ultimately, Perkins career withstood the challenge, but it was a painful episode. (While the tactic of deporting labor leaders had been used before, evidence against Bridges fell apart during a trial and he remained in the United States.) Outbreak of World War II On December 7, 1941, Perkins was in New York City when she was told to return to Washington immediately. She attended a cabinet meeting that night at which Roosevelt told his administration about the severity of the attack on Pearl Harbor.   At the beginning of World War II, American industry was transitioning from producing consumer goods to the material of war. Perkins continued as secretary of labor, but her role was not as prominent as it had been previously. Some of her major goals, such as a national health insurance program, were abandoned. Roosevelt felt he could no longer spend political capital on domestic programs. Perkins, exhausted by her long tenure in the administration, and feeling that any  further goals were unattainable, planned to leave the administration by 1944. But Roosevelt asked her to stay after the election of 1944. When he won a fourth term, she continued on at the Labor Department. On April 12, 1945, a Sunday afternoon, Perkins was at home  in Washington when she  received an urgent call to go to the White House. Upon arrival, she was informed of President Roosevelts death. She became determined to leave government, but continued in a transition period and stayed in the Truman administration for a few months, until July 1945. Later Career and Legacy President Harry Truman later asked Perkins  to return to government. She took a post as one of three civil service commissioners overseeing the federal workforce. She continued in that job until the end of the Truman administration. Following her long career in government, Perkins remained active. She taught at Cornell University, and often spoke about government and labor topics. In 1946, she published a book, The Roosevelt I Knew, which was a generally positive memoir of working with the late president. However, she never published a full account of her own life. In the spring of 1965, at age  85, her health began to fail. She died on May 14, 1965 in New York City. Notable political figures, including President Lyndon Johnson, issued tributes to her and to her work that helped bring America back from the depths of the Great Depression. France Perkins Fast Facts Full Name:  Fannie Coralie PerkinsKnown As:  Frances PerkinsKnown For: First woman in a presidents cabinet; major figure in the  passage of Social Security; trusted and valued adviser to President Franklin D. Roosevelt.Born:  April 10,1880 in  Boston, Massachusetts.Died: May 14,1965 in New York, New YorkSpouses Name: Paul Caldwell WilsonChilds Name: Susana Perkins Wilson Sources Frances Perkins. Encyclopedia of World Biography, 2nd ed., vol. 12, Gale, 2004, pp. 221-222. Gale Virtual Reference Library.Perkins, Frances. Great Depression and the New Deal Reference Library, edited by Allison McNeill, et al., vol. 2: Biographies, UXL, 2003, pp. 156-167. Gale Virtual Reference Library.Perkins, Frances. American Decades, edited by Judith S. Baughman, et al., vol. 5: 1940-1949, Gale, 2001. Gale Virtual Reference Library.Downey, Kirstin. The Woman Behind the New Deal. Doubleday, 2009.