To say that the vast majority of people in the world did not expect the world to end last Friday would be a gross understatement. The 21st came and went with a whimper, not an explosion of super volcanoes, hidden rogue planets, or Pole shifting. The lesson to be learned here is best exemplified by a quote from the Bible repeated ad nauseam across social networks: “However, no one knows the day or hour when these things will happen, not even the Angels in heaven or the Son himself. Only the Father knows,” Matthew 24:36.

It is an understandable reaction. No one can predict the future. Not anyone today, and surely not anyone 2,000 years ago. It is very hard to take seriously the idea that a race of people could predict the end of the world thousands of years ago, but could not see the trouble coming for them when Cortez and the Spanish showed up. Yes, the dismissive attitude many people had that day is infinitely understandable. It is also troubling.

A closer examination, whether it is Facebook comments, news articles, comments made in television interviews, etc., reveals not a dismal of the Mayan prophecy, but of the idea that the world will end at all. That is the underlying emotion. Nothing will end. Nothing bad will happen. The biggest lesson to be gleaned from December 21, 2012 is not that no can predict when the world will end. The jokes, the dismissal of preppers, end of the world parties, all point to the sad fact that if something bad happens, no one is prepared.

The victims of Hurricane Sandy and Katrina are living examples of this sad fact. Both had days of warning. Everyone in the areas hit by the storms knew they were coming. Yet after the storms hit, the degree to which those affected needed help from the federal government and charitable Americans country-wide demonstrated that the residents were unprepared. The response by the federal government, and days it took power companies to get electricity up and running to all their customers, shows our institutions were not ready.

Neither of these events is world ending. However, there is an old saying, “If you lose everything you own, then it’s the end of the world to you.” Can anyone dispute that to a family who lost their home and everything they own in Sandy, Katrina, or even the tornadoes of Joplin that their world has ended? If you are snowed in your home resulting from the current winter storm sweeping across America with little food and no heat, does it matter that the state of Florida is fine? No. You are in an emergency that might not end the world, but could end your life.

So why do the eyes of most people roll in their heads if you mention prepping for an emergency? Why do they act like no big event is ever going to happen in their lifetimes? The answer is probably no more complicated than that people do not expect bad things to happen to them. It may happen to someone else, some other city, state, or country, but not to me. This is a very dangerous thought to have. Eleven years ago three thousand people had that same thought process, and then the building they worked in was hit by a plane. Some were in areas that negated any hope of survival. Others allowed themselves to be led back into the building. Some of those people did not make it out.

Life threatening emergencies can occur at any moment. The Bible verse, “No one knows the day or the hour,” means something bad could happen right now. If it did are you ready to handle it? If you get a call from your child’s school what is your plan? If you get into a car accident and your wife is gushing blood, do you have a kit in the car to save her before the ambulance gets there? If you live in the mid-west or up north, what is your plan for when your pipes freeze and the power goes out? A national emergency occurs, and your cell phone does not work because the lines are slammed. Do you know how to contact your loved ones? Do they know how to reach you?

Does the world actually need to end in order for you see the value of being prepared for an emergency?

The Mayans were wrong. No real news flash there. But here is a prediction that is absolutely certain and does not take an elaborate calendar to see; there will be future catastrophes. Not earth shattering (though that will happen one day too) just local, or regional. There will be storms, hurricanes, terrorist attacks, freak storms, and earthquakes. These things will happen. Will you be ready when they do? Or are you going to just brush them off in hopes that it will happen to someone else in some other place? The response from the government to Sandy has shown that even if the federal, state, and local governments work hard to respond the response is always slower than needed. People will have to take these things seriously, and ready themselves to protect their families and help neighbors, If that is not done, then even a localized event can have more serious consequences than necessary.

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Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul yesterday raised eyebrows by calling for the abolition of the Federal Emergency Management Agency as the east coast prepared for the arrival of Hurricane Irene.

FEMA is an agency of the Department of Homeland Security that is responsible for coordinating responses to disasters whose impact is too great to be handled by local or state government.

“We should be like 1900. We should be like 1940, 1950, 1960,” he said at a campaign stop at Gilford, New Hampshire. “”I live on the Gulf Coast; we deal with hurricanes all the time. Galveston is in my district.”

“There’s no magic about FEMA,” he continued. “They’re a great contribution to deficit financing and quite frankly they don’t have a penny in the bank. We should be coordinated but coordinated voluntarily with the states. A state can decide. We don’t need somebody in Washington.”

Earlier this year, Paul made a similar observation during an interview with CNN. “Why should somebody from the central part of the United States rebuild my house?” he asked. “Why shouldn’t I have to buy my own insurance and protect about the potential dangers? Well, the reason we don’t have market insurance is it’s too expensive. Well, why is it expensive? Because it’s dangerous.

Well, so why should – why should we take money from somebody else who don’t get the chance to live on the Gulf and make them pay to rebuild my house?”

When Hurricane Ike struck Texas in 2008, Paul voted against a bill to provide billions of dollars in aid to the area, even though it would have benefited his own district.

Paul has long made a name for himself as a critic of what he sees as ‘big government.’ In the past, much of his ire has been directed at the Federal Reserve. He claims that the Fed’s policies have devalued the dollar by increasing inflation and he has repeatedly introduced legislation to either do away with the Fed entirely or else subject it to an outside audit.

Paul has also repeatedly expressed his support for parallel currencies (such as gold-backed notes or digital gold currency) that would be used alongside Federal Reserve Notes.

So far there has been little reaction to Paul’s comments from his fellow presidential hopefuls. More than likely, they see him as a fringe candidate who does not need to be taken seriously and so they have little reason to take to the airwaves to criticize him.

Christopher Halloran / Shutterstock.com

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Rep. Ron Paul from Texas is standing behind his controversial remarks about the hurricane. The Republican presidential hopeful stated that the federal government should not be a part of disaster relief, even as Hurricane Irene was bearing down on New York City.

Paul told NBC News on Friday that there was nothing “magic” about the Federal Emergency Disaster Agency (FEMA), which has been coordinating the response to Hurricane Irene.”We should be like 1900, we should be like 1940, 1950, 1960,” said the Texas congressman during a stop in New Hampshire. He regarded FEMA as a “great contribution to deficit financing.”

“We should be coordinated, but coordinated voluntarily with the states,” Paul explained. “A state can decide. We don’t need somebody in Washington.”

On Sunday, Paul appeared on “Fox News Sunday” and stood behind his remarks. “It’s a system of bureaucratic central-economic planning, which is a fallacy that is deeply flawed. So no, you don’t get rid of something like that in one day,” he said.

“I propose that we save a billion from the overseas war mongering, bring half that home and put it against the deficit, and yes, tide people over until we come to our senses and realize that FEMA has been around since 1978. It has one of the worst reputations for a bureaucracy ever,” added Paul, arguing that federal money often goes to contractors instead of disaster victims.

Paul stated during the interview that he would vote against any request for additional money for FEMA, if the Obama administration asks for an emergency funding bill. He said it was time citizens “transition out of the dependency on the federal government.”

“Where would the money come from?” he responded. “We don’t have any money. What are you going to do? Go hat in hand to China and borrow the money? … The whole idea of FEMA is a gross distortion of insurance.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) argued last week that any potential emergency funding for natural disasters must be offset by spending cuts elsewhere, although not cuts to his salary of course. His remarks have been criticized by members of both parties.

Christopher Halloran / Shutterstock.com

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