The Bob Graham Center for Public Service provides a wide variety of programs for students and the larger public on topics related to public service, public leadership and civic engagement.
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10 Years Later: Is Our Nation Prepared?
September 11, 2011
On the 10th Anniversary of the 9/11 attacks the Bob Graham Center for Public Service hosted a special session looking at what many experts consider the real possibility of biological terrorism – the next generation of weapons of mass destruction – and the threat faced by Florida’s major cities.
Joining former Florida governor and U.S. Sen. Bob Graham for the discussion was J. Glenn Morris, Jr., MD, Professor and Director of the Emerging Pathogens Institute at the University of Florida, and a few of the 70 Bob Graham Center students who spent the summer looking at county emergency preparedness plans against terrorism. The Bob Graham Center is a finalist for a National Day of Service and Remembrance Award, a special citation given to organizations that create public service projects that honor those who died and those who have served because of the tragedies of 9/11. The winner will be announced on Sept. 23, 2011.
The event was a rare opportunity for both students and the public to engage with one of the nation’s leading experts on the current terrorism threats facing the United States. Sen. Graham served for 10 years on the Senate Intelligence Committee, which he chaired during and after 9/11 leading up to the Iraq war. He was also chairman of the Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism, established after the 9/11 attacks to assess the nation’s efforts to prevent weapons of mass destruction proliferation.
That commission reported in 2008 that it is “more likely than not” that a weapon of mass destruction — specifically a biological weapon—will be used in a terrorist attack by the end of 2013. The Bipartisan WMD Terrorism Research Center, co-founded by Sen. Graham, is currently in the midst of developing a report card that measures preparedness across the country.
In addition to the latest analysis on the federal level, a selected group of Bob Graham Center students was able to share their findings on preparedness for biological attacks at the county and municipal level for the state’s major regions. The session also featured audio recordings of individual experiences of those who are now in Gainesville recalling their personal 9/11 story in remembrance of that tragic day.The University of Florida’s Samuel Proctor Oral History Program recorded these two- to three-minute audio-only stories for this occasion. They will then be housed as part of the 9/11 Memorial in New York.
The Bob Graham Center also collected donations at this event for the HONOR Center, an organization helping support homeless veterans.
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