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.