While in my twenties, one of my major career goals was to build a successful business. By my mid-thirties I had reached that goal and was feeling quite comfortable in my life as a publisher. Under those conditions it seemed like a good time to fulfill my public duty and get more involved in politics.…

Large-scale disasters had happened before but they were in the distant past, long before the majority of the population was born. The current generation knew little of real hardship. They had grown up during a time of prosperity and planned their lives for more of the same. Among them was a mayor of a small…