Poverty-fighting programs are not handouts - they are investments.

The problem with most children's hospitals is that they are passive. They are high quality. They are filled with the best doctors. But their function is to wait until kids get sick and get referred in.

When children are hungry, sleepy from a night spent fighting untreated asthma, or hobbled by symptoms of undiagnosed illnesses, they are less likely to do well in school.

Disasters like Oklahoma City and 9/11 were time-limited. The children who were affected psychologically could go to a place of normalcy.

There are several very good websites which describe the details of preparedness planning for citizens.

There isn't a single American city, in my estimation, that has sufficient plans for a nuclear terrorist event.

Kids get a lot of lip service in disaster planning, but they tend to get far fewer resources than they need. The mantra of 'children are our most valuable resource' is almost never matched by actual funding.

Fallout shelters are like bell-bottoms. They've gone in and out of favor.

If we ensure access to health care and 'best practice' asthma treatment for children, especially those at high risk, there is the potential to save the health care system billions of dollars.

The reality is that it's harder to recruit pediatric subspecialists if you're not recruiting them for a children's hospital.

Police officers and firemen are so visible in their daily work, there's no mistaking they're there - and that presence makes people feel secure.

If a severe pandemic materializes, all of society could pay a heavy price for decades of failing to create a rational system of health care that works for all of us.

The best way to get a sense of what kinds of emergencies might present themselves in your community is by contacting local chapters of the American Red Cross or offices of emergency management in the region or state. Most large cities will have their own offices of emergency management.