In the report (17 pages) they recommend changing the alert levels from five to three. There was no consensus on doing away with or keeping the color coded system as a basis. Since I wasn't invited to participate in the deliberations I thought I'd share my ideas for revision here.
If we are to keep the color coded system we should come up with symbols that reflect the colors, but are easily recognized.
I'm thinking Fruit! Kiwi for "Green", Oranges for "Orange" and a Red Apple for "Red." I can imagine the new watch word being spread around the nation, "An apple a day keeps the terrorist away!"
Or, we could go for vegetables: Green Beans for "Green", Carrots for "Orange" Tomatoes for "Red." My rationale is simple. As a kid my favorite vegetable was green beans. They are the right color, and I still like them best! Carrots, are good for the eyes. Citizens would be encouraged to eat more carrots during heightened alerts so that they can spot terrorist plots being hatched next door. Tomatoes are red of course and as a kid I hated tomatoes. Did you know that way back when they were considered poisonous? Today I grow them, but I don't eat them much. Hate tomatoes, hate terrorists!
Or, why not use punctuation as symbols? I favor the (-) hyphen as being "not to low, not too high" right there in the middle for the steady state of readiness the nation needs. The (?) question mark would be the middle point, to indicate that something is going on and people would ask questions and become suspicious of their neighbors. Lastly, what else (!) exclamation point. If you are really worried about the tightened threat you can add several (!!), if an attack is underway (!!!!!!!!!!) might be appropriate.
For those of you who don't like the color and fruit ideas, or the punctuation--I suggest plain old words.
The standard steady state of readiness could be called "What me worry?"
Elevated threat could be: Either "Say WA?" or "Huh?" expressing the idea that something is going on--but what is that you said? Actually "Say WA" was a Washington State marketing ploy to get tourists, not terrorists, to come to Washington and visit. It was a flop. Neither tourists or terrorists came and spent money.
High threat: Call it either "Chicken Little" or more expressively "The sky is falling, the sky is falling."
Maybe with these ideas written here I'll at some point be invited to participate in a Task Force meeting sometime in the future. I did note that Washington State Governor Gregoire and our Adjutant General Timothy Lowenberg were active participants. Guess they don't need another Washington State representative.
That was fun! In reality I do support the idea of a warning system. The recommendations are solid. Re-branding ((Black Water has tried it) away from the color code probably is a good thing since it has been a flop in the public's eyes.