Statesmanship is a lost ability. This is the time for a great statesman to appear.  An orator of substantial proportion.  Yesterday,

Yesterday, Good Friday 2020, I watched on and off a two hour something given by President Donald Trump.  I say “something” because I can’t say it was a speech, or a rally, or presentation or a prayer.  It was a rambling that embarrassed me.  This is our president.

Nope.  None of the above.  A president had the opportunity to be counted with the great statesmen of history.  Churchill, JFK, FDR, Lincoln, Washington, Franklin, the list goes on.  But alas, I’m afraid that we have a less than ordinary person in who is our president.

How about this for an idea?  The country is essentially locked down. The president has stated that Easter is a very important day for him.  On which he had aspired to be the day that the country opened up again. But that can't be, too soon.  So what is the obvious thing for the president to do?  He should televise an Easter morning service, one that will center on our countries will, strength, love, etc.  But no, Easter was only a talking point for the president.  No depth of thinking.

He really didn’t expect to be president.  He shouldn’t have.  But we were asleep at the switch.
“Let the governors do it.  I’m not responsible for anything.”
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The perfect moment for a true statesman.  Where are you?

FEMA: Information about emergency conditions in our country is required to be provided in a timely manner me and to many organizations.  This plan will concentrate on the perception from the POTUS office, but the implementation should serve wide needs.  There are two major components to the plan.

Alternative to Presidential Visit to Disaster Sites
When we suffer a disaster, many resources are quickly brought to bear.  In the case of a national emergency FEMA takes the federal lead and immediately begins delivering services and coordinating with local resources.  This FEMA action continues to be scrutinized and improved with experience.

The disaster of course makes the news relatively quickly and we see “When will the president get to the disaster area?  When with the 747 take off?  When will the presidential entourage not disrupt emergency services?”

Imagine this:  In the oval office there is a wall of computer monitors.  At and around the disaster site, a group of responders as determined by FEMA will be provided with a communication device. This device may be as simple as a smart phone. Each of these key responders plus FEMA will be connected to a monitor in the oval office. I assume FEMA will establish WiFi capability in the disaster area as a priority item in their response.

At the direction of FEMA, those among the representatives that have critical information to provide me will be asked to present that information. Information officers representing key areas are encouraged so that critical leaders are not called away from their duties.  Redundat information and showmanship should be avoided. I will as question during and after the presentations. 

​This can all be televised to the public so that everyone gets his or her face time with best facts at the time presented.  Air Force One never leaves the ground and everyone does their job.  (Ironically, it may be that FaceTime is the tool that connects everyone.)

Disaster Details Communicated Visually
FEMA and others should use existing drone technology to fly over the disaster area.  There may be many drones sweeping the area with cameras. Their images are stitched together to form a Google Earth like picture of the area.  The cameras and associated rendering software result in a huge image that can be zoomed in on to the extent of seeing white flags being waved from widows or a roof.  Updates are constant.  Images are examined with the intensity that NSA examines satellite pictures.

The images from this system will be available to all rescue and recovery operations as well as the president.  FEMA will be represented in the Oval Office so that the POTUS can get answers to any questions and ultimately have the best information possible in real time. 

This technology is all available.  And again, by all means keep Air Force One in the hanger.  One trip avoided would pay for all of this.  The president’s presence on site should be replaced with news conferences that prove that POTUS is on top of the situation.  And he would be.
Dah.
David B. Murphy if he was POTUS
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