In the wake of the church fires last summer, the President asked me to lead a National Arson Prevention Initiative. He wanted to focus the efforts and the resources of the Federal government on supporting community-based activities to prevent arson. The initiative the President implemented was national in scope not regional, and not focused on houses of worship exclusively. In a very real sense, it marks the first anniversary of an unprecedented crusade to combat a national problem that far too often maims and kills and can destroy the fabric of our communities. The theme of this week is Target Arson, and each community should ask themselves what they are doing in the fight against arson.
Arson is preventable.
What is disturbing is that one out of every four fires is intentionally set. That means that someone a fellow human being consciously decides for whatever reason to destroy a home, a car, a house of worship, or a business. And in that moment they have attacked the lives, the livelihoods, and the spirit of a community. Arson is a national problem, but it is fundamentally a local problem. This war like most wars must be won in the trenches.