Secretary Napolitano on Shared Responsibilities

“This month, which just happens to be National Preparedness Month, we are really sending out the message about shared responsibility for individuals,” says Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano in an interview with the Washington Post. 

Shared responsibility can mean a lot of things. In this interview, Secretary Napolitano invokes shared responsibility in terms of natural catastrophe preparedness, and also in terms of national security. But shared responsibility also encompasses government accountability and transparency to the American public.

At one point in the interview, Lois Romano of the Washington Post asks Napolitano, “What keeps you up at night? When you are laying in bed, what are the things that worry you?” (approx 3:00)

She responds: “I think another thing that concerns me is complacency, the fact that it has been eight years almost now since 9/11 and people just assume the government is going to take care of that.

Well, the government can do many things, and we are, but again, safety, security--a shared responsibility.” (3:28)

Of course, the ACLU has been taking up Secretary Napolitano’s invitation for shared responsibility for national security for many years, around the same time that the Bush administration not only acted irresponsibly but illegally. The ACLU’s Safe and Free Project monitors civil liberties in the face of the detention, torture, surveillance, censorship and secrecy that has predominated our national security policies since the attacks on 9/11.

In Napolitano’s interview, she does not tell us not to distrust government, but she concedes that government cannot do everything. Recent years have also demonstrated the government does not always follow the law, with the surfacing of Bush torture memos, the indefinite detention without charge or trial of immigrants and suspected terrorists, just anecdotes to a long list. When discussing immigration, Napolitano says, “We are a nation of laws” and “I certainly think it's important that we enforce the law” (15:24).

Members of the Bush administration needed reminders that we are a nation of laws and that they were not exempt from them. Secretary Napolitano is right that our security is a shared responsibility, and perhaps one that is too often overlooked. The Obama administration should receive the same level of criticism and accountability that the Bush administration receives now. There is plenty to learn and plenty to do to fulfill our shared responsibility for our national security and, of course, our civil liberties. Learn more about it here.

You can also access the transcript of the interview and a video of the interview here.