Planning for World-wide Disasters

Leaders of President Bush's administration are meeting with governmental leaders from Canada and Mexico to plan for handling disasters that might strike North America, as well as plan for other emergencies that involve all three countries. See Security and Prosperity Partnership Of North America. Because epidemics like Avian Influenza can quickly spread beyond national borders, such planning is not only necessary but critical to the health of everyone. However, such planning must be held within the constraints of the US constitution. The negotiations and decisions must be "in the open" in that the public is informed, before the agreements take effect, of the meetings, the negotiations, and the decisions reached. And, the binding effect of the decisions must be via treaties which are sustained by the US Senate. Our founding fathers didn't want secret agreements between nations, authorized by administrative decision of the heads of state of those nations, because such such agreements can, and likely will, lead to loss of national sovereignty.

/Allen Leigh
2007