Paranoia

I was walking in the annual 4th of July parade this year, and I couldn't stop thinking about what we would do if there was a terrorist attack...I did an informal survey of citizens, and in spite of all the billions we've invested in counter-terrorism in the last seven years, none of them has gotten or knows of any terror attack (or disaster preparedness) information or training.

Without ranting, I think the best possible use of money in preparing people for terror attacks (or disasters) is in teaching them...this is absolutely the best way to make the whole country safer. Second to that is teaching and training our first responders, third is equipping our first responders, fourth is everything else, like the Dept of Homeland Security and intel "fusion centers" all over the country.

Incidentally, the best thing I could come up with for the parade was for everyone to run away at a 90° to the parade route, which would decrease the crowd density at a maximum rate. (This isn't true everywhere, since the parade has inside turns, but I can't think of anything else.)