book « Robin Writes

As always, whenever there is a new media circus around a shooting event, many preppers begin the call of doom. What was that movie? DOOM ON YOU! DOOM ON YOU!

I don’t do that, particularly for a single news story, but when they seem to come in waves with a definitive “us versus them” addition, things seem a lot scarier.

Now, we’re in a good location and we’re pretty much ready for anything, but we still have been stepping up our game this past weekend:

The new security system is operational.

Supplies are inventoried and increased.

We have plenty of practice ammo and more, if there are intruders.

That does NOT mean we’re looking for trouble or starting any. It simply means we’re ready and now we’re going about our business.

Long ago, I read a book with a saying that has always stuck with me: “Prepare for the worst, then forget about it.”

When I’ve had biopsies, when my husband had cancer and heart issues, when one of my kids was doing something stupid, all these times I’ve prepared myself, mentally and otherwise, for the “worst” and then I’ve been able to “forget” about it.

Of course you can’t actually forget—no one can, and no one should. Not about those things, not about things happening in the world today. Sure, there are times that I tell myself “enough,” and stop reading the same old shit on a different website. Anything new, yes, I’ll keep informed. I particularly find it hard to read the human interest stories—not because I don’t care, but because I need to keep my sanity.

So I know what’s happening, I keep abreast of the news and events, but I don’t have to WORRY about my family or myself.

I know some of you do. I am sorry for that.

Some preppers, vocal ones, well-known ones, like to make predictions about when or if SHTF. I listen to/read their remarks and draw my own conclusions.

Some theories are pretty far-fetched. Some have their adherents. Some are downright wrong and/or silly.

For a long time, I watched the market, checking trends twice a day. I still do that, but I no longer think that economic collapse is the most likely SHTF scenario. Not that it won’t happen, but it will be a result of other things besides the performance of foreign markets.

The election is coming up. It’s a farce. Not just this one, but many or most or all of them. I’ve thought this for a long time, decades even. And it doesn’t matter who wins. Things are going to change, but maybe not in the way you’d imagine.

I expect more riots, more unrest; I expect more “them vs us,” regardless of who the players are each time. I expect supply lines to be erratic, and by this I mean your local grocery store may not have enough food for all the shoppers. I expect gasoline to be in short supply, as well as all the products that make modern life so convenient and easy.

And it may even be worse than all that.

I’m not worried. I’m fine. But I am concerned that all of you may not be so fine. SHTF is not necessarily a doomsday scenario with burnt-out buildings and buzzards circling and dirty survivors running around shooting each other.

It’s people living without power and no way to get to work if they still have jobs, or finding blocked roads when they venture out to find food or other goods—and not finding anything at all. Or having a job but no way to cash that paycheck, if they get one, or being intimidated by neighbors or strangers into giving up what they do have . . .

Oh, yes, I’m going there. Along with everyone else.

But here’s my question:

What about his mother? We haven’t heard a peep. Dad, yes; what an ass. But where’s Mom in all this? I think I might know something about that. Read on:

Dear Carleen—

I know this is your baby boy. And I know it’s hard. I’ve been there, in a way.

Welcome to reality.

As parents, we all like to think our kids are special or outstanding, and many of them are, in the eyes of the world as well as in our own. But our kids aren’t extensions of us, they are their own individuals. They will do what they’ve been taught, or sometimes they’ll do the opposite.

In your case, however, having read your husband’s statement, it sounds an awful like Brock was taught how to be a douche.

I didn’t teach my kid to be the way he is—you see, my son is a felon too. He was in trouble a lot, some of it legal trouble, before that felony was committed. And he always got off with a slap on the wrist. When he was finally taken down to juvie, I told the judge, when asked, that I couldn’t make the decision for my son to stay or to come home.

This was my boy, but he was violent and unpredictable and it was frightening. I didn’t know how else to answer the question, I just wanted my boy back, the real one, the one who was funny and sarcastic and had a lot of plans for his life.

So the judge sentenced him to three weeks. I doubt he has ever forgiven me for that. He was in and out of a few county jails before the “big one,” always just a slap on the wrist for misdemeanors, and then finally, it happened.

Felony charges and prison time. He was sentenced to four years for breaking a glass door at closed service station. Four years. He was out in a few months, forever changed and unable to do many things a non-convicted person is allowed to do.

Am I happy about that? Of course not! But this was something HE did, not me. If I could change it, I would, but this was the result of HIS choices. No one wants her son to be a felon.

I’ve never been the kind of mother who thinks her child is always innocent, and I know my kids are better adults because of that. If my kids were/are wronged, I’ll be the first one raising hell; but first, I’ll check the facts. I’m good at that.

I feel horrible about my son. I wish it wasn’t like this. I’m sure you feel the same.

But there’s a big difference between feeling and action. Your husband—I can barely manage to get the words out, but his letter was just SO MUCH BULLSHIT. And you, you haven’t refuted a thing, you haven’t commented on that at all. Or, for that matter, on any of this.

I just can’t help but think maybe, just maybe, you’re seeing your husband for the ass that he is and that you’re making plans to dump him. Because really, Carleen, what self-respecting person would allow another to speak for her in such a way? No, this isn’t because you’re a woman—I get all that “stand by your man” stuff, but this is just plain wrong.

Your son was wrong. You can still love him. You can still support him and try to help him, even knowing what he did. But to allow someone else, husband, father, whoever, to say that your poor boy has no appetite for snacks is just complete lunacy. To allow the phrase “20 minutes of action” to describe a violent and brutal rape, spoken or written by your partner, without comment, is simply sick.

Maybe you’re undergoing treatment and went away somewhere. I don’t know. No one seems to know. But I think I can speak for nearly everyone and say that unless you step up and speak up and distance yourself from this ass you’re married to, you’ll be forever painted with the same brush:

An absolutely terrible human being with no thought for that poor girl at all—a selfish person, with only a thought for the perpetrator of the crime, your son.

Sincerely,

A Mom