Miss communication at the West Virginia mines


Hearing of the survivors of the mining accident in W.Va. Tuesday night I felt a sigh of relief for their families. Upon awaking Wednesday morning I heard the news that there was only one survivor. Reflecting upon memories of Sept.11 I realized just how news from a far hits so close to home.



It made me recall one particular memory of an EMS worker. This worker arrived at the world trade buildings just as the first one fell. After experiencing medical issues was ordered to get checked out and then was told to go home. While home and trying to rest, his wife received a phone call notifying her that her husband was lost in the tragedy.



This problem of miss communication is not a new issue, but what is being done to deal with it. What about the families that is hurt by it? Who should be held responsible?



In every crisis situation the first rule is to set up a command center. From that command center every thing is controlled, including the release of information. The command center also has someone in charge to coordinate all functions of the crisis (including release of info). The coordinator should be held accountable for finding out just who leaked the false information and seeing that appropriate actions are taken on behalf of the families and the additional hardship they went through because of it.



Be it the mines in W.Va. or right here in the heart of NYC it is time the public stands up and demands answers! I am asking all readers to take the poll at the bottom of this page and send additional comments to localnews@worldbreak.com

Written by Arthur Wallace

Reaching out works!

Do you need proof that reaching out with your group’s message can make a difference?

Well, here you go! When I started teaching community safety a while back, I was looking for any resources I could find to educate myself to better serve my public. In my search I came across a site for Home Office, Part of the UK Government. I found some information on their site that I though would be helpful to pass out to the communities. In contacting them to request permission to reproduce some documents. I made it clear what I was looking to use them for and what my position was in the communities. The reply I got was more then I could ask for. They not only approved my request, they also sent me out Books, VHS tapes and software they use for training. They reached out a half a world away, and are continuing to do so for others today. I still use that material as a reference.

They reached out to me and it helped my community. Just think of the impact that you can have if you just reach out around the corner.

Written by

A. Wallace

Time to Reach Out

No matter if you are a concerned citizen, community leader or head of a small group. Take any ideas you have to help improve your neighborhood and reach out with it. Attend community meetings, speak up and be heard. Most people have issues concerning their neighborhood and don’t realize just how many others have the same issues. Nothing will be done until each of us take the time and effort to reach out.

We are fortunate to live in an area that has a local community council for each police pct. (contact the community affairs officer at your local pct. for information on local meetings), as well as many local civic groups and block associations. Take advantage of what these groups have to offer and get involved. One voice may not get heard, but spoke in the right place the many followers will be heard. Also keep in mind that every action taken to improve our quality of living started out with one person speaking up. Be that one person. There is also something for everyone to do if they want to get involved. No matter if you’re a business owner that wants to offer your service or a handicapped person that can’t get out of the house much, the right community leader will be able to assist you in finding a way to donate some time and be a part of helping your community.

So, reach out, it really does make a difference.

Written by

A. Wallace

Stop It Now!

Stop it now! Is a national nonprofit organization that fights for the prevention of sexual abuse victims. Their efforts and accomplishments are in my eyes worth making the public aware of. I have been following their efforts via their web site for about a year now. With newsletters, links and publications along with the toll free help line (1-888-PREVENT) they make a notable effort to aid in the fight against Sexual Abuse. Their efforts seam to focus more on the prevention of child abuse, but are geared to all ages. Although their fight is an important one, I would have to say that they avoid a very important part of prevention. Like many groups that have joined this fight over the years, they do not provide much (if any) community training of the importance that communities rehabilitation of offenders. As much as these crimes need to be prevented before they happen, they need to be prevented before they happen a second time by the same person. I understand that most people would not want an offender in their community, but this view also leads to further problems. By running offenders out of communities and not hiring them, we leave them nowhere to turn, but to further crimes and possibly re-offending. We as community members need to be aware of risks and prevention methods, but we also need to be educated and aid in the rehabilitation of offenders. If we do not want offenders to commit more crimes of this nature (or any nature), upon their release from correctional facilities we need to see that they become a “productive and law abiding” part of life. Don’t forget that although the general public only wants to take one point of view, there are always two sides to every coin. I commend the work being done by Stop it Now; I simple think they need to extend their efforts in order to truly help prevent sex crimes.

I am aware of the controversy that these viewpoints will create, but that is why I felt they need to be expressed. Through properly handled controversy and different viewpoints we will not only prevent the initial offender from offending, we will also help prevent the convicted offender from re-offending. Note that depending on your train of thought, you might find this article to be negative or positive, however it was truly written from a neutral angel. It is hoped to help those who read it to look at more then what the average media would have them see.

Please take the time to visit stop it now’s web site at http://www.stopitnow.com ,a lot of the information and services will prove useful to those abused as well as those not abused.

Written by A. Wallace

Resisting the Justice Department

It has been all over the news about Google refusing to give in to the government’s demands for the search engines records. I did not want to comment on the situation until I contacted Google directly.

What some of us don’t know is that almost every major web search service has not only given in to the government’s request for release of data, and will continue releasing that information when requested. And is doing so without a fight. Where does this all stop? With e-z pass, traffic cams, credit cards, metro cards, etc. The government already knows every move we make. America was at one time about freedom, but when we are placed under constant surveillance, that freedom is gone. Security surveillance protects the store from theft, but when it is made available to the government upon request becomes a way for them to monitor us right down to what we are looking at in the stores. Does the government really need to know if we are wearing boxers or briefs? This is not that much different from the records of search services are submitted. What do you look for on-line? Are you looking for clothes, a car, to read about issues that you are concerned about or just some photos of the old neighborhood from when your parents were kids? Isn’t that personal information, and shouldn’t it be kept personal. If the government was restricting their request for information to illegal things, such as search’s for child porn and search’s of that nature. Then that would be different. But the demands are to have all records of searches between dates of their choosing released. Did the government forget about the right that we have to privacy? Each search service has a little thing on their site where you can click on that explains the privacy procedures. Yet none of them state that the privacy terms will be discarded at their whim.

I have to commend Google for respecting the public’s rights of privacy. After contacting Google with my thoughts and requesting a comment from them, I received a response that went on to say, “Google is not a party to the lawsuit in question, and we believe this demand for information overreaches. We participated in lengthy discussions with the Justice Department to try to resolve this issue, but were not able to. We intend to resist their motion vigorously”.

Should you wish to have your rights to privacy remain in tact, consider sending your letters of support to Google, and take additional action by refusing to use any/all services that have submitted their records. The services such as Yahoo, Microsoft and MSN that released the information without a fight have no respect for our privacy or the Privacy Agreements posted on their web sites. To continue using these services shows they can do what ever they wish to us and continues to put money in their pocket. Hit them where it hurts, in the wallet. Then and only then will they have any respect for our privacy and/or any agreements that we used their service’s under.

By Arthur Wallace
With special thanks to Google for their taking a stand-up for our rights