I normally don’t dwell on the divide we have or they show in the media today. I watch my favorite things on TV, spend time on the computer, hang with friends and go shooting now and then. But over the last year I have become a real creature of habit. From reading my USCCA magazines I try to stay aware of my surroundings when I go anywhere but for the most part my community is pretty safe.
However from TV media and the internet I do realize we have different groups out on our streets that seem to be our worth watching out for. My Niece Lives close to Portland and my Sister close to Seattle. BLM and Antifa have both of them texting me or posting on Facebook on a regular basis. But they don’t tend to be visible where I live. That however is what made me stop and think the other night. I had been out for my last walk with my dog and came and and locked up for the night. Took my boots off and my over shirt and kicked back for TV. Part way into a British Show we were watching my wife noticed she was out of decongestant. While she was willing to wait till the next morning I decided I could pop over to the drug store and get her some decongestant and be home in 15 or 20 minutes. Got to the store and picked up the stuff and headed back to my car. So far things were going well but I realized I had left the house in Code white.
How did I realize this after the fact? It came to me as I went into code yellow heading for my car and seeing an approaching large male dressed in a white shirt and backwards baseball cap and face mask. Wasn’t panicked till in remembered I had put my firearm in my box by the bed when I got ready to stay in for the evening. Still no need to panic but then I saw the letters on the mask, it had the three letters of the two offending groups burning down Portland and Seattle. Yes I still had a knife but I realized I was not in my normal state of readiness. I caught his eyes and gave a slight nod of recognition and he walked by heading for the drug store. He was younger than I thought at first and maybe was looking for decongestant himself. But I did realize that even in my community there and a perceived division of who is friend and who is foe. The duel flags, the A inside a circle, or the A inside of a five point red star are the symbols my Niece sees most. Do any of these new street monitors bother others or was being unarmed just making me over cautious?
Made me smile. I am having a diamond plate cover made for my spare tire compartment to turn into a big lock box. That way on the days I am forced to go to the doctors office, post office or a School I will have a place to lock my weapon up so I will always have it with me when I leave.
I grew-up in Hammond Indiana. Not the worst place in the world but had it’s share of gangs, I’ve been jumped, and I’ve had friends that got jumped. Over time as a kid I developed some awareness of what’s around me, maybe on the side of paranoia. When I was 21 I supervised a bar & grille while in college and the way I walked around the restaurant I got accused of looking like a cop by different customers at the bar. It’s something that I was never able to let go of. I feel like I chilled out a little bit and then I had kids and it started again. Then the riots happened last summer. With the riots there were reports and videos of increased black on white crime and then I saw my nightmare scenario happen to a couple in MN. Four men were trashing a couple’s business and the woman went to investigate first (not sure why) but they proceeded to beat her and then the husband came and he saw it happen and then they beat him. I believe one used a 2x4. I watched it in disbelief and decided I could never stand seeing my wife or kids go through that and I promptly got my CCW and took a couple other classes. My vigilance is at another level these days for sure. I very rarely leave my house without my pistol, at the very least it’s in the lock-box in my truck in case I’m doing something or going somewhere it cannot come with.
Our country is incredibly divided and I don’t think being over-cautious is possible to be honest. For anybody that’s straight and white or on the GOP side of the fence, I don’t think over-cautious is possible. Not even over-cautious from a violence standpoint but from a professional standpoint as well. My work-place has a lot of liberals and I kind of stick out as it is, plus I can’t talk about any of my interests. At orientation of course we went through a small intro and talking about our interests. I couldn’t very well, say strength-training, guns, and bourbon, so “exercise” it was and blamed my kids for keeping me too busy for anything else. It’s not because I’m concerned about what people think but it’s also because I don’t want some idiot to “red-flag” me, claim that I threatened them with a gun, or just get fired because I don’t fit into the liberal corporate culture. Maybe that sounds crazy but my company had a “Woke-a-Cola” light version of training. It was great to see a white man portray the enemy in every possible situation.
Things do seem worse now as far as trusting people than it used to. I have found memories of Portland and Seattle, spent a lot of time there just before and after College. But now I wouldn’t even visit my niece unless we picked a place Idaho to meet. Well maybe closer. But I get what you are saying. It is just that things have changed and enemies seem to be identified. It used to be fellow citizens and maybe some bad guys or criminals. Today you can add violent groups like part of Antifa and BLM plus the criminals and bad areas of town. It used to be you knew to avoid some streets and some parks after dark and today they come after you will eating dinner at a sidewalk restaurant. In some places they block the street and drag you out of the car and call it a protest. The us and them attitude is almost overwhelming. And today I am almost afraid to say what I would do if someone sucker punched my wife walking down the street only to be let out of jail on no bail. In fact I am not saying.
I have got to the point where I will stop an officer on the street and tell them what a great job they are doing. I don’t want even one to consider quitting. But things may be changing now that the media is being forced to see the damage of their favorite protesting shock troops are doing to our communities. States like Florida are passing laws where they can’t block the streets and if they do you will be justified to escape anyway you can.
My original question might be are we so divided we are beginning to fortify our areas?
Living in a pro-police city (yes, residents openly show their appreciation of blue ) makes me feel less paranoid but still aware of my surroundings.
Leaving city limits to go to work is a different matter.
Billboard signs with #Resist or some other leftist buzzword remind me there are divisions that exist.
I’m particularly wary of cowards who sucker-punch unsuspecting individuals like what’s happening in some places.
If someone from another country were watching American TV they would get the impression that the USA is a boiling cauldron of hatred. I work in a majority minority community college and on a daily basis I do not see the hatred that MSM would have us believe exists.
Maybe I’ve just gone straight from naive to senile.
Still, being cautious and aware of your surroundings is important and your safety is your responsibility.
The irony where I work is we just had an “ethics” training where the role players (men and women) in it were blacks and Latinos that were unsure of the right thing to do, which appeared to show that it was an issue of people of those races. To me that reeked of bigotry, but I know it was meant to be “inclusive”, not showing white people in the training. I agree, though, being Conservative and a firearm owner, makes one keep one’s opinions to oneself most of the time, but that is another example of giving the Left want they want - to infringe on our rights and submissiveness.
Stay in a “safe room”? Nope. Just like to know what’s going on around me at any given time. When I’m driving, I can pretty much anticipate when someone is going to do something stupid. Being ready for the worst case means reaction times are cut down if someone actually does it. Back in the day, they called it “Wargaming”. Don’t know what they call it now. “Situational Awareness” probably covers it, but “Wargaming” sounds more fun. With practice, it becomes second nature. Either way, it’s working for me
It’s a mixed bag. About two months ago we took the kids to a bounce world play place with one of their friends. A little boy hurt his ankle pretty bad and couldnt find his Mom so I walked around to help find her. Mom was single and also had a toddler and now her older son that couldn’t walk. I offered to help and after a weird look she agreed. I was holding the boy as he hopped along and the front desk ladies and people around them stopped and looked and me, then looked at Mom and asked if everything is okay while they shot looks at me. The kid was black, the ladies at the front desk were black and the people gathered around them chatting were black. I think a lot of the distrust is very real and I felt it first hand. The play place was mostly a black population and aside from helping that boy and his Mom, I caught weird looks often. It didn’t bother me to be there but I did feel like I was being made to be uncomfortable. Unfortunately my wife was oblivious the whole time. Lol
Fortunately, your wife was oblivious, as women are less forgiving in those matters. Glad it turned out well. Maybe, but unlikely, those people will change their view on people that are dissimilar to them. We are pounded by the Left and media that we are the problem.
@Dave17 , brother I do not mean any harm or disrespect but the truth is, left wing has nothing to do with the problem. History and present actions and way of thinking does.
Just to be clear you don’t ascribe the stated manifestos on BLM organizational sites as well as statements made by Antifa as major cities are burned as left wing? The nightly Riots in Portland are not left Wing? The autonomous zones like the one in Minneapolis is not left wing. Are we to overlook what is being said and done as if it is justified? Shootings are up 800 percent in Portland now, today based on what is happening now. All of the violence and rhetoric is coming from the left. Even the media can’t blame what is happening in our larger urban areas on the right. Not when all the leadership in these cities are liberal.
So sir I guess I will have to respectfully disagree.
How can we not see there is nothing beneficial in the direction our society is headed?
@Robert5 i can respectfully agree with the disagreement. Everyone has their opinion and I thank you for your respectful disagreement.
My take on things of this as I said, history, which has shown difference in race which still exists to this day. If peoples learn and understand that until we all learn to forgive and respect others and their opinion, learn that we may be different out the outside but the same on the inside, and one of the most important is division is profit in today’s world.
Here is my question to you. Are you talking about whether there is a divide between ANTIFA/BLM and rest of the nation? If this correct my response is, shouldn’t the divide be larger? When does speech from Moaist Marxist stop being protected by the first amendment. Why should an ideology (communism), the antithesis to a Constitutional Republic, be allowed to thrive?
Now if you were talking divide of another nature then I went in the wrong tangent, sorry.
) makes me feel less paranoid but still aware of my surroundings.