robin tidwell « Robin Writes

A lot of folks would say I’m a horrible person, but I really just want to say, “Knock it the hell off, Ferguson!” Why do I want to say this? A lot of reasons:

1. I’m tired of hearing about it.

2. I’m tired of worrying if my kid’s school will be affected, if we’ll be safe driving him there.

3. I’m tired of worrying about the violence spreading.

Besides all this, I’m tired of hearing the same old crap. From everyone.

Best I can tell, it comes down to these basic issues:

The protestors think they’re being discriminated against some/a lot/most of the time. They want justice for Mike Brown and others.

Obviously, being a white woman, I can’t really speak to the discrimination, but given the culture of today, many, many people are constantly being “offended” by one little thing or another and claim to be “picked on.” Many of us simply shrug and move on. Oh, I could easily take, for instance, the actions of drivers in the STL area quite personally and assume everyone is out to get me, but I curse, shrug, and move on. Seems like a lot of people could do the same, and everyone would be less “offended.”

At the same time, I have friends who have told me that many instances of blatant discrimination are quite real—and I believe them. Things I have a hard time believing are those like the story of the father of the recent shooting victim. He said that his son was a “good boy” and didn’t have a gun that night. Well, unless that dad frisked his son and was with him every moment, he can’t be 100% sure the kid didn’t have a gun. Stuff like this inflames everyone.

I have two boys, and one is in prison. I’m his mother, but I’m not dumb enough or naïve enough to believe everything he says. Hell, I normally don’t believe ANYTHING he says, ever, unless I have absolute proof right in front of me.

The other one is has never been in any kind of trouble at all—but, for example, I just found out today that one of his band camp activities was going to Swing Around Fun Town, a small fact he neglected to mention when I asked about that weekend. All he’d told me was that they “played music and had pizza.”

Sheesh. And I’m not complaining, it wasn’t an attempt to hide anything, he’s just vague on details sometimes. And, for the record, I’ve NEVER been a parent who automatically believes, when my kids are in trouble, that they’re pure, innocent angels; neither do I automatically believe they’re guilty.

So what is justice? Righting a wrong, having someone pay for a crime, being fair.

Is discrimination fair? Of course not. However, in the Mike Brown case, Darren Wilson was found not culpable. There was nothing to charge him with. STL County said that, and so did the feds.

That. Is. Justice.

You may disagree, that’s your right, but it IS justice. The facts were examined and a conclusion drawn, and that’s the way the process works. Demanding that it go YOUR way is not justice; that’s your opinion and also your right to hold.

This is the justice system.

Sometimes, it’s full of crap, but that’s the way it goes. My aforementioned son received a sentence of four years in the MO DOC for property damage. They said he bashed in a glass door at a gas station. He probably did. I’m still not convinced that’s right, because I’ve seen armed robbers and those charged with assault and DWI receive much lesser sentences, but that’s what the courts decided.

You break the law, you take your chances.

No, of course every crime doesn’t deserve death, but the powers that be decided that Mike was assaulting an officer and tried to grab his gun. I think even small children know this is risky. It’s not like Darren Wilson decided he was going to kill a black guy that day or anyone on any day.

And a lot of people are going to say, “Oh, so you’re TIRED. Big freakin’ whoop. How do you think I feel?”

Well, I don’t know. I’ve left an open invite to anyone involved in the protests to come talk to me, but I haven’t heard diddly. Okay, so maybe no one reads this. But a lot times, I think people like Antonio French and Chappelle-Nadal and others are just trying to get their own names out there. Seems like they go through the motions of caring but really don’t do much but yack and flail their arms around, trying to look like big shots.

So sue me. You won’t get much.

But if I can talk to people, why can’t you? Yes, you, whoever you are, reading this. It comes down to people, not parties, not race.

Black people are angry, but I think they might need to stop and look at exactly to whom they’re directing this anger. Okay, okay, it’s my opinion! Geez. Relax. All I mean is that it seems to be directed to cops and white people, all and in general.

Think about this—if you’re black, don’t you have at least one white friend? And if you’re white, you have at least one black friend, right? If neither of these apply to you, you need more friends. Seriously.

Do you hate your friend of a different race? Of course not. Do you agree with this friend about everything? Probably not. Do you actually TALK to this friend, have conversations, that sort of thing?

So there’s no problem, right? With you and your friend? What’s the difference, then, between your race and his? Black and white? Not very much.

Let’s talk history. MLK and Rosa Parks. I think a lot of people want to be like them, but this is a different era—much more violence, more media attention, more instant “news.” A lot has changed. You can’t go back in time and have a re-do of the civil rights movement. You have to create your own.

And I’m all for civil disobedience, but you have to temper that with the rights of others. I can quietly go about my own brand of civil disobedience, ignoring ridiculous county rules and regulations for example, and it affect no one but me. It does, however, get my point across, and if I were to organize others, we could perhaps have change.

If I did this, you would have maybe 100 people stop paying their trash bills—because they have other methods of trash disposal—instead of bowing to the government because it says you MUST pay for trash service, regardless of whether or not you use it. This is not, by the way, infrastructure; we all use roads, we all benefit from education and school taxes.

Trash pickup is purely arbitrary, much like health insurance. Ahem.

So, my point is that this would affect no one but those who refused trash service and the accompanying bill. It would not interfere with anyone else’s rights to travel, to be safe, to pay for and have their own trash picked up each week.

THAT is civil disobedience.

When you interfere with MY rights of free travel (I-70 shutdown), it does more than make me late for whatever appointment I may have. And guess what? It makes me angry. Hey, look—I’m angry too, just like you! Different reasons, and you may think your reasons are better, but it doesn’t matter; THAT is your opinion. My opinion is different. Neither is a fact.

What happens when I get angry? I don’t want to listen. When you are angry, you don’t want to listen either. So if the white people, who are, as some have said, “inconvenienced,” don’t want to listen, then what is the point of what you call “civil disobedience?”

Nothing. There is no point except to cause trouble.

Sure, there are white people who participated in the protests and the demonstrations. Good for them. But why are they there? Support? Solidarity? Belief in a cause? Are they truly your brothers and sisters, and if so, why? Why not all white people?

I really would like to know.

After I wrote this, I read a blog written by a black man who said white people always want to talk. Huh. Not sure I understand the problem. Communication goes a long way. Then again, I’m white. What do I know?

Let’s assume you live out “in the middle of nowhere,” which is where I like to say we are now. We’re about 15 miles from a little stop on a highway, and about 25 miles from a town of under 5000. Basically, we have all the conveniences nearby—in country miles—but we’re pretty isolated once you make the drive.

In fact, our county road is a dead end, with just one family living beyond us.

As I make the drive on the blacktop, either direction, I can’t help but notice all the farms and homes between here and either town.

What does this mean? Well, if you were living in a small town and hadn’t prepared for SHFT, and perhaps weren’t even passing familiar with the outdoors and/or the area, where would you go for more supplies and help?

Most, I think, would head up the highway to the interstate and towns of 10-50K or more. Some, I suspect, those who hunt and fish on the weekends, might spread out into the countryside.

And here’s our advantage: to get to us, someone would have to travel quite a few miles on blacktop before the county road turn-off; after that, it’s a couple miles of turns and twists.

But see, all along that blacktop are fields and crops and woods and houses and barns and livestock. Most homes, too, are right on the road. Easy pickings.

Sure, a person could set off cross-country, but how many are going to go this far, overland, through woods and hills and creeks and fences, just to find a meal? Too many easier ways to go, and besides, if this person is that familiar with the territory, he’s more likely to quickly find what he needs and stay put.

There are several more homes along the gravel, long before anyone would get back here.

Now, let’s assume that someone does find his way. Remember the dead end road? We block it off. And yes, the neighbors are aware, and yes, they’d be on board with this. Sure, people can work their way around a roadblock, but it takes time and isn’t going to be stealthily done.

Particularly if the roadblock doesn’t appear to be deliberate and man-made.

And oh, yeah. We have ammo.

But let’s say someone wanders down here, and comes along the road. What do they see?

If, at your place, they see fancy gates that welcome them and a manicured lawn or pasture, and can gaze along a paved driveway or pretty gravel one right on up to your large home, you’re probably going to have trouble.

Unless you have a lot of money—a lot—you won’t have the time or resources to build and maintain a fancy bug-out location or homestead. Your purpose, your goal, is to be self-sufficient, learn to live with less, and not strive to out-do the Joneses.

You need to get your priorities straight. If you don’t, you’re setting out the welcome mat to all the stragglers from a 10- or 20-mile radius.

I’m not saying that you can’t have nice things, or keep your place well-maintained and neat; I’m not saying that you should live in a run-down shack with your below-ground bunker.

But when people drive by here, they see an old fallen-down house—still being demolished—and an older, but large, barn. Not much I can do about the barn, but it’s not very close to the house itself, which can’t be seen from the road.

There’s a lot of brush and trees and weeds, a new gate, yes, but it won’t look that way for long; old, sparse gravel on the drive, and rusted wire fencing.

Speaking of, you don’t need a big rock wall to keep out the riff-raff—how many people want to work their way through rusty barbed wire and poison ivy and stickers? Especially if it doesn’t look as though there’s anything worthwhile on the other side? Except, of course, that ammo…

If you’re looking to buy a place, first find the right location—a buffer between you and population centers. Or several buffers. Dead end roads are very good, although I’ll admit that was an accident; but I was very happy to discover it. Okay, really, the entire purchase was an accident!

Check to see if your neighbors are on board. Do they hunt? Do they raise what they eat? Do they live on an estate or a farm/homestead? Don’t bet that because they live out in the country they don’t commute for an hour or more, or have no clue what to do in the woods, or anything else.

Of course, be subtle. I don’t recommend outright asking if they prep—if they do, they aren’t going to tell you, a stranger and a newcomer.

What do you want to avoid? Planned communities. A concentration of several or more homes near each other. Junkyards. And by “junkyards” I mean crappy houses and with piles of stuff in the yard and 14 kids running around, as well as the regular types.

Google or use other sites like court records and assessors’ websites to learn all you can about those neighbors. Creepy? Could be. Too stalkerish? Perhaps. But you need to know. Maybe the only court records are loan defaults—nothing major. But if they’re recent, it could spell trouble for you as they likely aren’t prepared and haven’t stocked up. I’m not bashing poor people, Lord knows I have a few of those from way back and we’re not living on Easy Street right now, either. But it’s a factor. Just like criminal records.

Learn, too, what those neighbors do for a living. When SHTF, an accountant isn’t going to be much help, from an accounting standpoint. But a guy who works as a mechanic probably will. Or a veterinarian, or the one with tools and machinery, or the hunter.

Being prepared isn’t just about stocking up on food and supplies.