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Your senators and representatives. Your governor. The White House. The Joint Chiefs. Your local newspapers.
Make it clear that one of the major reasons that New Orleans and the Gulf Coast is going to be in such dire straits for the next year is because they did not have their National Guard to call upon in a time of crisis. Every state in the union is liable to crises of some sort that would need the Guard - point it out as a necessary safety measure.
The Guard can fill in at local offices and still do their guard jobs. (My father, who is retired military, but still IRR, is currently serving his IRR time as a paper pusher at the National Guard Armory in Phoenix; he's too old and infirm to go to Iraq, but he's fine with paper. Other Guardsmen can do the same. There's no reason at all to send the National Guard overseas when we still have undeployed regular forces in country. *Note* that is my father's opinion - and he was career military; fairly high up.)
We need to also change the definition of Guardsmen.... the fact is that there's far more need for Emergency Response corps than for Artillery units. I think we need to have dual MOS units - in case of invasion, we're an artillery unit; in case of disaster, we're a logistics and provisions unit. (This is my DH's suggestion; he is retired WV Nat Guard.)
But we won't get any of it unless we start making some noise that pols hear. So fire up the fax, mail 'em some letters, call up their Washington offices and make appointments with their local ones. (don't bother emailing... they get so many of them).
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