If all you know how to do in an emergency is to stop, drop and roll, than you are not ready for a disaster. Amid local and national threats of tornadoes and hurricanes as well as snipers and terrorism, the Middletown branch of the American Red Cross (ARC) has offered Wesleyan students training in disaster relief, shelter operation, mass care and CPR. The ARC wants students to be prepared not only if there is a disaster in Middletown, but also if students ever need to help in their own hometowns across the globe.
Unfortunately, and surprisingly, response from the campus has been pathetically non-existent. According to Middletown’s ARC director, if only 50 students participated in three hours worth of training, the community would be sufficiently prepared. Yet, at a University recognized nationally for its activism, where mobs of people will protest failures of campus dining and hordes of people will gather to promote free-range eggs, nobody has signed up to help. Students protest and promote issues ranging from environmental protection to freedom of speech, but when it comes to the well being of our local community, we express little interest. This failure to get involved reflects poorly on us and should cause us more than a few seconds of introspection.
Getting involved in the ARC program is a simple way for us to strengthen relations with the surrounding area and to help ensure our safety in this ever changing and constantly threatened world. The ARC is willing to come to campus to train us, and we urge all students to take just a few hours to share their talents and their willingness to help with our neighbors off campus. The likelihood of disaster in the middle of Connecticut may be slight, but that is not an argument for only a lackadaisical preparedness.
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