By Steve Adubato, PhD

Received some great letters in response to last week's column on the confusing and often contradicting communication coming from the federal government on the anthrax situation. The question asked of readers was; Exactly how would you want the government to communicate and share information at this particularly challenging time? This is what some readers had to say.

Nancy Cox wrote that she would feel more secure if our government were not stating the obvious long after the fact. "I believe the general public had already figured out there had to be more than one anthrax-laced letter, yet it wasn't until days later that we heard 'there is probably more than one letter.' I'd like to think that those in authority, with all sorts of experts and information at their disposal, would be ahead of the thinking process of the average American….Telling us we are safe when no one is really sure is unfair and perhaps immoral."

Cynthia Newman has similar feelings. "We are told there is a 'heightened state of alert' but we should go about our business…What is that supposed to mean?" Instead, Cynthia feels that giving the public a little list of things to do as a way to prepare for a crisis would help give them a sense of control. For example, make sure you have a battery operated radio, a working flashlight, bottled water and canned goods. Further, she believes officials should "also make it clear as to who at a local level is supposed to be in charge if something horrific happens."

Cynthia, that would make a lot of sense. Citizens should reach out to local mayors and town administrators and press them to publicize this critically important information.

Frank Schafer, Jr., a retired police captain and now Deputy Coordinator of the Essex County Office of Emergency Management stresses the importance of only one message being communicated by one messenger. "In the fields of public safety (police, fire, EMS, etc.) we use the Incident Command System because the complexity of incident management, coupled with the growing need for multi-agency and multifunctional involvement on incidents, has increased the need for a single standard incident management system that can be used by all emergency response disciplines." Frank tells us that within the Incident Command System, there is only one Information officer assigned to each incident who is responsible for developing and releasing information about the incident to the news media.

Sounds simple. One wonders why, if local and county government has figured this out, why not the folks in Washington?

Michelle Wolf from Hackettstown shared her perspective on the reason for "sloppy, uncoordinated and unprofessional communication" from our government leaders. She feels one of the causes is "the extreme unrealistic demands for 'instant' communication that today's media puts forth. They want the impossible and they want it NOW." Michelle believes that the public does in fact have a need to be informed, however, instead of pressing officials for the facts before they have had a chance to digest them is unfair. Instead, she recommends that officials "answer briefly and honestly until they have had the time to congregate with the appropriate professionals-even if it's hours or days later-and determine what the circumstances are…It is unrealistic and unhealthy (if not impossible) to meet the media's demands and deliver coordinated and professional communications."

Couldn't agree with you more, Michelle.

Lastly, John Waltz from Belle Mead would like our officials to be a bit more honest. "I would like officials to say 'I don't know,' or 'we don't have enough information to answer absolutely just now.' We all want to be able to appear as knowing all the answers, but as Rudy Giuliani demonstrated so well, we can say that we don't know and yet give reassuring information as to what is being done to get the information."

Great point, John. We are big boys and girls and most of us are actually capable of handling the truth, even when it is difficult to hear. As always, thanks for the feedback.