"When things go badly, leaders get blamed. People have expectations that their leaders (Federal, Military, State, and Local) are thinking about worst cases and preparing."

But what if nothing leaders have ever been taught or experienced is sufficient to the problem?

The Winter/Spring Edition of Project White Horse 084640 is online (www.projectwhitehorse.com) and I invite your interest. This edition and focus for 2008 is based on the premise that for the future, "we the people" need to come to resemble our frontier surviving, nation building forefathers - able to adapt and thrive in a hostile environment on our own initiative, assisting our first responders, not waiting to be saved, cursing the cavalry for not being on time. We will explore thinking about that future in context of the idea of a resilient community, whether that "community" be a university, a city, a state, or a nation.

There are many aspects that go into creating and sustaining a resilient community, some fall into technical aspects, some into the true professional aspects of public safety, but in my opinion, the long pole in the tent will always be the people.

The announcement for the new edition of the "e-zine" - Project White Horse 084640 - used the story of the "successful failure" of Apollo 13, and the site's Director's Comment began with a story of early frontier America because I believe we have misplaced some qualities we badly need to prosper in the emerging 21st century. In this election year, "change" is the preeminent word, but a lot more of the world is outside our ability to control than we appear to want to accept. Change will come, but airplanes, the internet, and globalization are not going back in the barn. Mother Nature, and man's propensity to make war have been with us always, and 2500 years of recorded history -give or take- give absolutely no indication they intend to change. Whatever happens overseas, we must keep the words of Nassem Nicholas Taleb in the Black Swan in mind: we will never get to know the unknown since, by definition, it is unknown. However, we can always guess how it might affect us and base our decisions around that...Invest in preparedness, not prediction"

Much has changed in the world since we fought the last good war, most significantly technology. While technology is vastly superior, we seem to confuse technical advancement with human characteristic advancement, and in so doing, we let technology mask a truth. We remain (as stated at the close of Da Vinci's Horse) ever at the "dawn of victory." Many ask for change, I revert still to my youthful, unsophisticated, uneducated inexperienced, ready to take on the world of JFK's "ask not..." We are a work in progress.

I invite your involvement with examining the idea of a resilient community.

http://www.projectwhitehorse.com and http://blog.projectwhitehorse.com

Your comments and guidance will be most appreciated.