I’m a fan of homeland security. It means that we’re safer than we were. It’s the reason I… I’m a fan of homeland security. It means that we’re safer than we were. It’s the reason I don’t mind lines at airports or carrying a second ID card. If it means people are safer, I’ll do it.

That’s why I felt better coming out of my class on the National Incident Management System, a creation of the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Administration. The system told me what my place as an emergency service worker is, whom I answer to, what I need to say on the radio and the best way I can help in a minor or major disaster.

But now I feel like the FEMA certificate I have is only worth the number of origami animals I can make out of it.

Homeland security doesn’t mean much to people living in the Astrodome after losing their homes, and it certainly doesn’t mean much to the people lying in the ruins of New Orleans, waiting to be found and buried. Many of them are dead or have nearly died because our response as a nation to our first domestic disaster on the scale of the events of September 11, 2001, in four years was neither smooth nor timely.

A handful of National Guardsmen were helping survivors, trying to rescue more and holding off mobs and looters all at once. Gang fights broke out in the Superdome, and people jumped from the upper levels to escape them. Children were nearly trampled while trying to get a bottle of fresh water.

In the rest of the city, rescue efforts were hampered by random gunfire and a lack of resources. People trying to escape on their own were stopped because police and guardsmen thought they were looters.

Even as they arrive now, soldiers and volunteers do not know where their orders are coming from. New Orleans mayor C. Ray Nagin has ordered a total evacuation of the city, but Louisiana Homeland Security official Ed Jones said such an order can only come from the governor, so people remain in the dangerous wastes of New Orleans.

At this point, I’m ready to elect Nagin president. He stayed with his city and coordinated relief efforts with the only resources at his disposal, while President George W. Bush flew overhead in Air Force One. White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan is busy deflecting and playing the “blame game” with the press corps, but the truth is that we are all to blame.

The National Incident Management System and everything else that the United States built after Sept. 11, 2001, was not ready for this. And while the water drains from New Orleans, the refugees scatter and the press complains, people and supplies are still needed, and will be for a long time.

This disaster is an opportunity for people to help in the only way they can: with their hands, not their voices. Protesting the government and badmouthing the administration, whether you are correct or not, will not do nearly as much as donating or volunteering to help.

If you protest armed forces recruiting, sweatshop exploitation or justice in the Middle East, you have the energy to spend a few weeks in Mississippi or Louisiana helping people who have lost everything they had. If you can eat out, you have the ability to donate a few dollars to the Red Cross, the Salvation Army or another organization helping with relief efforts.

Ask a professor if you can take some time to volunteer, and if they say no, ask again. This is a crisis that has rarely been seen in this country, and only the foolish and ignorant would not help if they could.

This is an extraordinary time in our history. People right here in the United States need help and will for a long time. Picket signs, television coverage and presidential declarations will not be enough for them.

If you have seen a refugee shelter, you know that victims do not care if the person helping them is rich or poor, religious or not, educated or not. They care that they are helping, and they will remember it.

If Homeland Security failed hundreds of thousands of people, the only thing they can use is the help of their homeland.

Michael Mastroianni encourages anyone able to help in the relief effort in any way they can to do so. There is a class for volunteers beginning Friday, September 16, at 6 p.m. at the Allegheny County Fire Academy in Allison Park. The local chapter of the American Red Cross is online at www.swpa.redcross.org. Michael can be reached at [email protected].