A note to my emergency management colleagues here in the US on the eve of the 2020 election.

In the next 24 hours or so, we will likely learn who will lead our nation for the next 4 years.

1/

Some of us will have new representatives in Congress.

Some of us will have new representatives to our state houses.

Some of those representatives will stay the same.

2/

Some of us will have new governors, mayors, city councilors or county commissioners.

Some of those office-holders will remain in place.

3/

For some of you, your candidate will win. For others, your candidate will not.

But when we wake up on November 4th, our mission remains the same.

4/

We will provide information so people can make decisions about how best to prepare for emergencies and disasters.

5/

We will lead planning efforts to mitigate against the hazards we face and work to reduce risk.

We will respond to bad days and spend many months, or years, recovering from them.

6/

We will strive to do these things in a more inclusive, equitable and accessible way than we did yesterday and take steps to do even better tomorrow.

7/

We will do these things for our entire community regardless of the language they speak, the color of their skin, their preferred pronouns, how much money they make, their level of education,

8/

... where they were born, who they love, and certainly without any thought of the sign that has been in their yard or apartment window or what bumper-sticker may be on their car.

9/

And we will acknowledge that disasters negatively impact some of those in our communities more than others.

And that disasters are policy issues.

And that disasters are political.

The work we do, however, is not.

It cannot be.

10/

We will focus on the challenges that we emergency managers face regardless of who holds elected office, do our level best to educate the newly elected about why our work is important,

11/

... and wake up Wednesday morning with a sense of pride for the work we are fortunate to do for our communities.

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