This is in response to recent stories claiming that the president needs more authority to deal with a crisis such as the prospective avian flu pandemic. The president has more authority and power than any other person on the planet. To say he needs more authority is ludicrous. Furthermore, it gives people the impression that with a little more authority for our leader, we will be protected from all the crazy things going on in the world around us. That false sense of security stands in the way of people doing what needs to be done to maintain our relatively secure environment.

The response to the recent hurricanes was what it was because of a lack of collaboration, not a lack of power, authority or even a lack of resources. Our homeland security is in tatters for a number of reasons, but lack of authority is not one of them.

Each state needs to get its act together to build borders that we can secure when the need arises. Resources now at the federal level need to automatically relocate to states on an as-needed basis as a result of collaborative planning between the feds, the states and local governments.

Unfortunately, this is not happening. Furthermore, all the soldiers in the world could not enforce a quarantine if the people do not support it.

James Tierney, Auburn