There never was any siren credibility

Every time I read about the problems and expense associated with those stupid, annoying "tornado sirens" I get this mental photo of the first time they were ever set off in downtown Newark.

The picture is of the mayor and safety director looking out of the window over West Main Street from the city building and watching for the crowd's reaction when the sirens blasted.

And then I remember reading of or hearing about their great disappointment that the little minions down there in the real world did not scatter and run for their lives, as they'd been taught. Government wise men had been betrayed by the masses.

The fact is, that from Day One of Government's Siren Folly, the masses have not believed the magic therein. People with any sense never scurried at the beginning and they still don't.

And the reason is - as has been reported here before - that neither safety directors nor meteorologists nor Homeland Security bureaucrats - can predict tornadoes; not if they are going to land, not where they are going to land, and not what path they will take. It can't be done.

So now that some glitch set the sirens a-howling and nobody knows why, the Homeland Security spokesman was quoted as saying "... It really bothers me that we try to make it as fail-safe and credible and reliable as possible, and then something like this happens ... and gives everybody a question.”

Actually, he should relax. There already was a question, beginning from Day One.