It was nice to have Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge in town this week. His visit to the Center for Domestic Preparedness at McClellan is a signal to our area and the nation that the administration is putting a high priority on the center and the role it will play in the world’s new security arrangement.
“We have to build a national capacity at all levels in communities to respond to terrorist events,” Ridge told a group assembled at the center Tuesday afternoon.
What was also intriguing, however, was a suggestion by Ridge that the center might be retooled to handle some 20,000 first-responders each year. The center currently trains around 12,000.
Nearly doubling the capacity of the center could have a significant impact on the local economy.
We welcome that, but most of all we welcome the opportunity to play a major role in the struggle that our nation and all the civilized world is now involved in.
It is important to remember, however, the lesson our area learned from the closure of Fort McClellan: Economic diversity and avoiding an over-reliance on the federal government is the path to long-term prosperity.
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