Mike Tyson famously said, “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” Which is his version of Battle plans change when the first bullet is fired.
The police force in Uvalde, Texas, learned that the hard way.
Biden’s border policies have done nothing but encourage violence thus emboldening Evil. However, this article is not about Biden. It’s not even about courage. It’s about playing at something. Uvalde’s police had a few days of playing what-if when they received active shooter training just a few weeks prior to this attack.
I would like to know of what that training consisted.
Cui malo and cui bono.
Physically holding back parents ready to lay their lives on the line for the children? My body gets shivers every time I think of that. What were they thinking? Who trained that police force? And who is playing spin doctor with the facts and why are the playing spin doctor?
Of course, the Uvalde shooting brought out never-helpful emotional reactions all over politics and social media and the news cycle is filled with more scary stuff. Even Trump, in a speech, started playing politician about protecting our children. I say “playing politician” because in this speech the solution to public school shootings made it clear to the man has never had children in public schools and has no clue what those are like. One point of ingress? Metal detectors to stop anybody with guns? High fences? Lots and lots and lots of background checks for whoever wants to go in? I laughed out loud.
“Making good people helpless will not make bad people harmless.”
I shared my friend’s post quoting the above, it showed a rifle, saying to myself “Who would have a problem with this logic?” Too quickly three men I know in real life piled on with every reason they could think of as to why guns are bad and we can’t do anything about the bad people and if good people are so good why do they keep letting the bad people do bad things and so forth.
After replying to all three individually, I realized each were saying the same thing and decided to reply en masse. Here is what I wrote to them:
[Names redacted Here, Here, and Here]: Bad people have always existed and until God Himself brings a stop to them, they always will. In the meantime…
Bad people lie. They love to hurt and destroy and maim and kill and otherwise cause trouble and take what does not belong to them because they want what others have.
Bad people are often wolves in sheep’s clothing. Hiding amongst us. They do not telegraph their bad intentions to good people. They sneak up on the innocent and the weak and the relaxed and the unsuspecting, wreaking havoc in surprise attacks.
One can complain and whine about bad people and what they do and wring hands in worry. That doesn’t stop bad people. One can wish they wouldn’t come around. That doesn’t stop bad people, either.
However, if complaining and whining and wringing and wishing is accompanied by telling good people they cannot defend themselves against the bad by meeting equal force with equal force, then the complainer and the whiner and the wringer and the wisher are working in cahoots with bad people. In other words, they are enablers of evil.
So, gentlemen, I ask of you: Are you three telling me that you prefer bad people not only have the advantage, but will, by force of law, be given a greater advantage to attack and kill and maim?
I ask: As I am attacked by a bad person who pretended to be a good person so they could get close to me unawares, which of you will stand by and say “Well, Angela believes in her right to self-defense, so let her do it; not my problem”?
I ask: Which of you are willing to stand in front of a crowd of grateful people who were just saved by a law-abiding person and tell them it would’ve been better they had been maimed or killed because the method by which they were saved was not approved by you?
I ask: Which of you has been so conditioned emotionally, mentally, and spiritually that you concede all power to bad people by claiming you are victims and can do nothing?
I ask: Which of you believes he is helpless in the face of evil?
Gentlemen, I quote to you the words of a song written by Sigmund Romberg and Oscar Hammerstein II, all about meeting evil forces with good forces from a Nelson Eddy movie of the same title as the song:
Stouthearted Men
You who have dreams, if you act
they will come true.
To turn your dreams to a fact,
it’s up to you.
If you have the soul and the spirit,
Never fear it, you’ll see it thru.
Hearts can inspire other hearts
With their fire
For the strong obey when a strong man
Shows them the way.
OH!
Give me some men who are
Stout-hearted men,
Who will fight for the
Right they adore.
Start me with ten who are
Stout-hearted men,
And I’ll soon give you
Ten thousand more.
Oh! Shoulder to shoulder
And bolder and bolder,
They grow as they go to the fore.
Then there’s nothing in the world
Can halt or mar a plan,
When stout-hearted men
Can stick together man to man.
So, gentlemen, I ask: Which of you will be part of the dam that holds back Evil from the hardworking folks in the valley below and which is a fearful, whining, complaining pussy allowing Evil quarter? Self-identify, please!
[End quoted response.]
Float Like a Butterfly, Sting Like a Bee
I believe they have self-identified, but I have hope they will become stout-hearted. Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth, says Mike. But these guys have not yet been punched in the mouth and their plan is to roll over and play the helpless victim.
Courage is not a thing. Courage is an action in the face of fear. These men, and many others, choose a state of inaction because they fear and they try to force that state of inaction on others so they can avoid the truth they know about themselves. However, as we all know, inaction is, of and by itself, an action. It is the taking of a decision not to do something. These men have chosen to do nothing and that nothing enables bad people. But they would rather do that than face hard truths about themselves.
Could it be they are unwilling to see any reality that may put them in a bad light? Do they secretly wish they could live like the bad person therefore promoting/enabling Evil is their “drug of choice”? Are they paralyzed with fear?
We’ve read of whole families, held hostage by one man with a weapon and the promise that if they cooperate they will not be harmed, but who were found bound, gagged, molested, and slaughtered in their own homes. I bet right as the first member of the family is molested and slaughtered that bound-and-gagged Daddy and Mommy were feeling a massive amount of guilt and thinking, “Damn it! Why did I believe this bad guy and not fight for our lives?”
Of course they were thinking that. And I bet my three male friends would think the same thing if they were in that position. I have to ask about them: Do they lack the ability to logically follow the evidence in front of them and so turn themselves into helpful victims? Can they not even imagine the “punch in the mouth” or are they so afraid of pain they bury their heads in the sand provided by Evil?
The Good who can mentally walk a mile in Evil’s shoes are in the best position to fight it. We must speak up and act against it. We must do so with forethought. Trading insults on social media is nothing but a feel-good word orgy from which one must slink away in the darkness because it accomplishes nothing in the long run. These types of people, no matter which side they are on, are not the ones who will step up when the going gets tough. They will wait for others to take action to protect them.
But that’s always the way it is, isn’t it?
Which is why we must study the enemy and learn its ways so we can see it coming from many directions and not only prepare to defend, but actually defend. We defend by way of logical reasoning on SM, court cases pleaded, and other daily actions in our countries, states, counties and parishes, communities, subdivisions, and homes.
Boxers know that the best defense is a good offense, but the best ones train so that they can defend themselves if other fighters’ offensive measures are gaining an advantage. See?
You got to know how to float like a butterfly and sting like a bee.
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Born and raised in Georgia, Angela K. Durden is an author, publisher, editor, songwriter, performer, and more, living in the Metro Atlanta, Georgia, area. Support your Citizen Journalist by visiting her Consolidated Author Page and buying a book or three. See more about Angela here. Want to watch a fun video? Click here.
