Better safe than sorry

Remember Chicken Little? She ran all over the place crying out,”The sky is falling, the sky is falling.” Absent anti-anxietymedication, poor Ms. Little had no other choice than to act on herillogical fear that, indeed, the sky was falling.

She had evidence that it was falling. An acorn hit her on thehead and she had surmised that a piece of sky had fallen on herhead. Without stopping to examine the evidence, she ran off andinvolved Henny Penny, Cocky Locky, and Goosey Poosey in herdelusion.

I was recently accused of being a Chicken Little. I was sharingwith a friend how October is the bearer of Fire Prevention Week andthat the weekend when daylight savings time comes is an excellentreminder to check one’s disaster preparedness supplies.

After a hearty laugh, he engaged in a weird calculus ofprobability, financial costs and time spent after which hedetermined that there is no way to be prepared. Period. I am stuckwith wanting to make my point by having him need some of mysupplies, but that would mean there would have to be a disaster.Not a good way to make my point. I’ll have to be content with myown calibration of responsible behavior.

During the week of October 17-24, Fire Prevention Week, I willdo my all for fire safety. I’ll check my smoke alarms, double checkalternate routes out of the house and make sure I have leashes andpet carriers at the ready. They do have a tendency to migrate tohidden places in the garage.

I’ll also complete at least two rounds of “stop-drop-and-roll,”have no less than a half tank of gas in my cars at all times anddouble check my list of things to take if I only have ten minutesto evacuate.

The weekend of daylight savings time, I’ll fulfill my Girl Scoutpledge to be prepared by replacing my flashlight batteries, androtating my five days of human and dog food and water. This is upfrom three days supply in light of the post-Katrina debacle.

I’m inviting Chicken Little, Henny Penny, Cocky Locky, andGoosey Poosey to tea to see if I can get the inside scoop on theAvian flu that is flying our way. If I get any good tips, I’llshare them in a future column. I’ll even cut my anti-preparednessfriend in on the deal.

I admit it; I can’t pass up a challenge. If I nudge him to oneor two points of preparedness, he will be less of a burden on therest of us. Thanks, Chicken Little, for alerting us to what we cando.

Jennifer Jeffries is assistant professor of education at CalState San Marcos and former superintendent of the Fallbrook UnionElementary School District.