Opinions

Somebody's got to say it By James Swift [email protected] Staff Writer

Terrorist drill a waste of time and money

National Security becomes a reality show at GHC

By James Swift
[email protected]
Staff Writer

On Oct. 11, the Cartersville campus underwent a Homeland Security drill that effectively shut down not only the school, but a major stretch of highway for several hours. That means I get to complain on two levels: first, as a student, and second, as an American taxpayer.

Now we all know that somewhere in the Pakistani mountainside, Osama bin Laden and his ilk are planning their next major terrorist act. Call me crazy, but I doubt "blowing up two year community colleges in the South" is in their blueprints.

That being said, even if Al Qaeda were to strike GHC, I'm certainly glad to see that with all of the state-of-the art technology our fine government is equipped with, the best advice they can give us in case some crazed, gun-toting lunatic storms the campus is "to lock the doors."

So we're supposed to create a barrier between us and the firearm- equipped madman? Thanks, United States government. I never would have thought of that strategy.

So we spend two hours in lockdown, and the Department of Homeland Security doesn't even provide us with an adequate evacuation plan?

Sixty percent of our tax dollars go towards funding national defense. This just in, our generation is not going to receive Social Security benefits. Not one dime. Why? Because Uncle Sam decided that it's more worth while to blow money on funding half-hearted, poorly-managed bureaucracies that can't even develop a fire-marshal worthy escape plan.

It seems from this drill that National Defense these days is a whole lot less Jack Bauer and a whole lot more MTV's "Jackass."