It was Peter Cushing’s character, Grand Moff Tarkin, who said it best in “Star Wars,” “Fear will keep the locals in line. Fear of this battle station.”

Replace the Death Star with the acts of the Department of Homeland Security: a working tool to keep Americans focused on terrorism, not domestic issues, the economy or other such frivolous topics.

And now, the fear campaign has extended to NIU’s campus.

NIU received a $75,000 grant from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity in late January to develop programs in homeland security. Students will even be able to take a disaster management course next fall.

The Bush administration established the DHS in January 2003 to “coordinate security efforts” and protect from future attacks or disasters. Though its purpose sounds amiable, the DHS has become more famous for its color-coded terror chart, duct-tape instructions for terrorist attacks and a Hurricane Katrina evacuation debacle than anything.

Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich approved the state grant shortly after Bush dubbed homeland security a “growing career field.” Maybe leaders such as Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff could benefit from these classes after clearly failing Hurricane 101 in the fall.

The DHS public relations machine is alive and well on the federal level as well, and it has a new strategy; under the disguise of education, Chertoff and the Bush administration are feeding fear to a whole new generation.

On Feb. 2, the DHS launched “Ready Kids,” which targets children ages eight through 12 to promote awareness on emergencies and terrorist attacks. The whole idea sounds strikingly familiar to the “duck and cover” methods of the Cold War.

Bravo to NIU for receiving the grant, but the long term implications of spoon-feeding fear-based ideas to a new generation of Americans are daunting.