FEMA has its own rap song

I'm divided about this story in today's Washington Post. I get the need to educate kids about terrorism, well, kind of. Like tornado drills in the midwest, or earthquake drills out west (they do have such things in schools in California, right?), it's good to have kids be prepared in case of disaster. But. There's something very Soviet hiding just under the covers here. Teaching a whole new generation to be afraid, very afraid, of the big bad foreign man with the funny accent. I don't know. I'm divided on this, because I do think that, like Israel has done probably the best of any country, we need to educate our people more about suspcious packages and the like.

(I remember once at Dulles Airport outside of DC, it's our international airport, it was the first year after September 11 and there was a suspicious half-opened box just sitting there in the middle of the international check-in area, abandoned on a chair, no one near it. It even, I seem to recall, had some stuff dangling out of it - it was suspicious as hell. I reported it dutifully to the airline check-in staff behind the desk and they pretty much laughed at me. I raised a bit of a stink so one staffer finally just walked over and picked the box up and turned it upside down and shook it (that was smart). It turned out to be nothing, but had it been something, that airline employee (and the rest of us standing there) would be dead because of their ignorance. Anyway, moral of the story: We have a lot of education to do.)

Anyway, FEMA even has a disaster rap song for the kids. Only the government could use the word "mitigation" in a song for kids. I also like how the USG is teaching kids to use improper grammar.

Disaster . . . it can happen anywhere,

But we've got a few tips, so you can be prepared

For floods, tornadoes, or even a 'quake,

You've got to be ready -- so your heart don't break.

Disaster prep is your responsibility

And mitigation is important to our agency.

People helping people is what we do

And FEMA is there to help see you through

When disaster strikes, we are at our best

But we're ready all the time, 'cause disasters don't rest.

You can apparently hear the song here.