“Paranoia Strikes Deep”* in 2020 By Jim Mullen Emergency Management, Once Removed The attention to a response to a major crisis can obscure a potentially more dangerous underlying threat. The COVID-19 pandemic is first and foremost a national public health issue, which must be resolved before the national economy can be resuscitated and “normal” [...]

Readers: Occasionally I review previously posts to avoid repeating myself (unless I want to!). The 2016 piece that I wrote entitled “Reconciliation versus Resistance”: Which will Win” seems relevant in 2020. What do you think? Jim Reconciliation versus Resistance: Which will Win? By Jim Mullen Emergency Management, Once Removed, November, 2016 After this year’s [...]

The Wisdom of Yogi By Jim Mullen Emergency Management, Once Removed “If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll probably wind up somewhere else” - Yogi Berra What will “recovery” from the coronavirus pandemic look like? Do we know? While it is unfair to expect those responding to the current crisis to think [...]

It’s Dusk in America By Jim Mullen Emergency Management, Once Removed Consider this: “As nightfall does not come at once, neither does oppression. In both instances, there is a twilight where everything remains seemingly unchanged.” William O Douglas Everything in our nation may seem “normal”. The Super Bowl happened. Pitchers and catchers will report [...]

Government’s Trust Deficit: A Possible Antidote By Jim Mullen Emergency Management, Once Removed It’s always challenging to affirm to Congress that public funds invested to improve individual and family preparedness are effective. I know, I’ve tried. Legislators have choices in authorizing and appropriating federal dollars. They are right to ask if emergency management is [...]

The Problem with Disaster Exercises By Jim Mullen Emergency Management, Once Removed Emergency managers don’t conduct disaster exercises to show off, but to learn, then apply what we learned. That’s often made more difficult than it has to be. Factors that impede an exercise The senior elected official bails out” – sending a surrogate [...]

Something I Learned in Grad School By Jim Mullen Emergency Management, Once Removed Attention emergency managers: aside from the noteworthy announcement that I learned anything in school, there may be something in the following upon which you might reflect. As I completed my bachelor’s degree in English at what was at that time Western [...]

WTO and Y2K - The Story I Was Never Asked To Tell – Part 5 (Final): A Look Back By Jim Mullen Emergency Management, Once Removed Events that go well often result in less to describe or recall. WTO Recriminations: Despite, perhaps due, to the constraints we struggled against, the WTO riots enhanced Emergency [...]

WTO and Y2K - The Story I Was Never Asked To Tell – Part 4: Havoc in the Streets By Jim Mullen Emergency Management, Once Removed As WTO approached, The Mayor’s Office became concerned about the contrast between the cheery outlook presented by SPD and the Mayor’s own staff and the "negativity" some of [...]

WTO and Y2K: The Story I Was Never Asked To Tell – Part 3: WTO “Planning” vs “Seminars in Crisis and Consequence Management” By Jim Mullen Emergency Management, Once Removed Whether in internal SPD meetings leading up to the WTO conference, or when the Mayor’s Office met with the SPD planning team, it was [...]

WTO and Y2K: The Story I Was Never Asked To Tell – Part 1: WTO Planning By Jim Mullen Emergency Management, Once Removed WTO 1999 Seattle’s Office of Emergency Management (OEM) had only learned of the pending (November/December 1999) World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference in March 1999. When "planning" did begin, it was clear [...]

WTO and Y2K: The Story I Was Never Asked to Tell – Background Information on WTO and Y2K By Jim Mullen Emergency Management, Once Removed Y2K In early 1999, concerns surfaced across the public and private sector that the turn of the century would require a rewrite of coding for a number of computer [...]