Run Away Another Day

Up here, the Old Place is the best place to get away from it all.  We are way back in the woods, on a big lake, everybody knows everybody, and except for sugar, flour, and coffee, we are all self-sustaining. Even so, people still ask me, "Col. Jim, is there any crime up here?" My reply is pretty much the same as everyone else's, "Back in the day, we had a couple of bad'uns come up here thinking to lay low. . . But don't you worry, no one'll ever find their bodies." Yep, the area around the lake is a safe place, and we guard our safety jealously... but wisely.  Here then is an example of wisely. 

Before I was born, my young cousin Clyde Barrow and his girlfriend Bonnie Parker found their way to the lake and knocked on my grandfather's door. The Old Place looked almost exactly like it does today. By a strange coincidence, both MaMie and Pop were at the lake. Pop was fishing, so MaMie opened the door. Of course, she immediately recognized her cousin and, knowing she was in no danger, invited him in and put on the kettle. While Bonnie went around to the outhouse, the two cousins had a chat. Now, without sliding out of facts and into speculation, we all know that the couple left the Old Place uninjured. So, Col. Jim, what's it got to do with safety?

Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were not serial killers, and they were not crazed mass murderers. Most of the people with whom they crossed paths parted amicably enough, even some members of local law enforcement. During their short criminal lives, the two developed the reputation of not harming those who were cordial to them or who, at worst, stepped aside. These, let us call them, "non-victims" were mostly plain small-town country folks who went to church twice a week, always welcomed strangers, and left their doors unlocked. It would never have occurred to these people to be rude or unwelcoming. The odd thing is, neither would it have occurred to Bonnie or Clyde. So, Col. Jim, what's it got to do with safety?

As we all know, lately the world has become like a "Riots Are Us Convention." Remember, modern rioters are not just regular folks who have had their temper stirred up. They are part of an organized group, bent on terrorism, and here's the scary part: most of them have been paid to be there. This is not your traditional mob mentality. This is a methodical, dedicated cult like group. The apparent emotion is well-rehearsed Gaslighting.

If you are unfortunate enough to find yourself in the middle of such an event, blend in.  Fight, and I do not care how many black belts you have in Wa Rang Go, you will lose. Keep your head up and eyes averted, smile. (I am one of you.)  If pushed, step aside, move slowly yet deliberately, and get clear of the area. If you approach a LEO, keep your hands in plain sight and raised. (I am not a threat to you, officer.)  Before you know it, you are safe.

Oh, so what happened to Bonnie and Clyde?  They had coffee and some of MaMie's homemade pecan pie. She hugged their necks and admonished them both to be careful and look out for each other.  The two desperados departed... and within three hours, were dead.  Sometimes you get the bear, and sometimes the bear gets you. 

Sitting in a rocker at the Old Place, I am, Col. Jim.

How to Feather a Better "Cuckoo's Nest"

Up here at the Old Place, we always considered ourselves off the beaten path. It keeps friendships close and worries far away.  Around here, if you have a problem, you tell Ruth, she tells everybody else, brings it out in the open, no more problem. One afternoon, in late June 1959, I was at the General Store with Mom and Dad. Mom was picking up a can of coffee while Dad and Ruth discussed the depredations of our honorable Governor.  I was on the front porch enjoying some root beer stick candy.  All at once, in a cloud of dust, this big black Cadillac limousine pulled up out of the blue. The back door flew open, and out tumbled one half-empty bottle of Old Tennishoes followed by the stocking feet of one Earl K. Long, Governor of Louisiana.  (Partially as a result of political rascallry, Earl found himself committed to the state mental hospital in Jackson, Louisiana. It did not help that several well-known Pros claimed that the Governor paid extra to keep his boots on or that he once took a shotgun to his lawnmower!) He ultimately “escaped” and, after carousing his way across three states, somehow found himself face to face with yours truly, then a plucky three-year-old.  Even back then, I loved cars, so I got up off the porch, hopped down the steps and picked up the shiny bottle. Long climbed to his feet, looked me square in the eye, and declared, “Good job, boy, that's the best damn bottle rescue I've ever seen!  Here’s a hundred dollars!”  To everyone's astonishment, Earl forked over a crisp C note. As "crazy" as all this sounds, you just sorta have to love a fella like that. So, Col. Jim, what's it got to do with safety?

Over the years, the old Colonel has learned a thing or two about mental health concerns, one being fundraising.   I can tell you working people donate in very specific ways, to very specific causes. Illnesses, diseases, syndromes, and ailments all have their supporters and detractors, as do mental health challenges. When I was growing up, there were “insane asylums,” with cute, funny nicknames like “nut house” or “booby hatch.” This sort of disparagement did not help. Now, after years of study, hard, thankless, and sometimes dangerous work, the stigma attached to mental illness...is still there. Thus, the cycle continues, with underfunded mental health facilities, undertrained medical professionals, and lawyers who choose the easy way out, incarceration rather than productive treatment. 

In the midst of all this apathy and ignorance, the left-leaning Hollywood and the mainstream media began to glorify serial murderers and cop killers. There was money to be made rebranding self-serving political causes out of mass shootings, riots, and abortions. The objective of the left has been to make credible the belief that persons who committed such atrocities were somehow… perfectly justified, normal, healthy folk, who were only “expressing their feelings.”  The fact that these behaviors were themselves the result of mental illness, tragically, only served to compound the fear. "Temporary Insanity" has even been used as a device to keep criminals out of jail. In this kind of environment, what hope does any person have with genuine mental challenges?

Comparison and contrast. 

For most of its existence, the medical profession has been primarily tasked with curing illness and disease, repairing injuries, and thwarting death. The safety profession has always been tasked with preventing illness, injury, and death in the first place!  Both professions have done significant research, improving life and reducing risk.  Each has its own laws and statutes.  Yes, illness and disease can not always be cured, injuries can not always be repaired, but they CAN all be prevented. (Think well before you argue this point.)

Cause and Effect

So why is a mental illness so often treated as though it were contagious?  We all learned the basic causes of physical health issues: virus, bacteria, something we ate or drank, sharp objects, falls, bees and wasps, and temperature extremes. The reason, or as we in the Safety profession refer to as the "Root Cause," of why mental illness presents no such clear instrument of cause is a lack of understanding brought on by insufficient training.

We also learned the basic symptoms of physical health issues: a cough, sneeze, headaches and muscle aches, nausea, vomiting, cuts and bruises, stings, and burns. Symptoms of mental illness, however, may appear no different from those with which we are already familiar; primary symptoms require very specific training to even notice. Ignorance of this fact results in the current misunderstanding of the extant behaviors.

For example, there are many reasons why people hurt others intentionally: Love, Hate, Greed, Power, Arrogance, Selfishness, Neglect, Distraction, and sometimes just plain old laziness. Instances of a person with mental illness frightening, injuring, or even killing another person are more often not intentional. This leads to misinterpretation, which leads to fear and incarceration in facilities unsuited to addressing mental illness.

So, if we know all of this, why can we not prevent it?  You are not going to like this, folks, it is because unless people have a family member experiencing serious mental issues. . . it is someone else's problem.  Seems crazy, no?  BTW, I kept the $100 bill.

Sitting in a rocker at the Old Place, I am, Col. Jim.

Does Safety Prepare Us for the Afterlife?

Up here at the Old Place, we are what some would call “God-fearing people.”  Fear, meaning, implicit trust in God’s Divine Providence, not the kind of fear that can manifest itself when we are exposed to the appearance of supernatural beings such as angels and saints, or apparitions of the dead. The assumption is that these are sent at the behest of a “supreme being,” God. Without getting into religion, there are three ways to consider the concept of a supreme being: 1. There is one supreme being; 2. There are many supreme beings.  3. There are no supreme beings.

 #1. There Is One Supreme Being:

Pick up the Holy Bible and turn to Exodus, where God introduces Himself to Moses. When Moses asks God, “When they shall say to me, ‘What is his name?’  What shall I say unto them?”  God replies, “I AM THAT I AM.”  The importance placed on that phrase, as God uses it to identify Himself in the burning bush, stems from the Hebrew conception of monotheism, that God exists by Himself for Himself, and is the uncreated Creator who is independent of any concept, force, or entity; therefore, "I am who am" (before, present, and ongoing).

 #2. There Are Many Supreme Beings:

Primitive man espoused the belief in many supreme beings based on the magnificence and power demonstrated by nature: thunder, lightning, earthquakes, the scorching of the sun, and the fury of the sea. We know them as Zeus, Apollo, Helios, and Poseidon. They even called the planet “Mother Earth” because, like a woman, the planet brought forth life.  This concept is rare in modern culture.

 #3. There Are No Supreme Beings:

Many people are raised in this belief by their parents. Others turned to this belief and away from belief in God because of a significant event in their lives.  God somehow failed to live up to their expectations of what any all-powerful supreme being should have done…not “could” have done. These "atheists" often make a very public god out of empirical evidence, a smoke screen they privately ignore. The irony is that despite a total lack of empirical evidence, most avowed atheists do seem to believe in the likelihood of other intelligent life out there in the vastness of the cosmos, just not a supreme being who created the whole thing.

It is noteworthy that there are currently no earthly religions that deny the possibility of “life out there,” so at least we agree on something. To suggest that we are alone is best left to an old quote from Star Trek by Mr. Spock.  “There are other forms of intelligence on earth, doctor.  Only human arrogance would assume the message must be meant for man.”  To wit, only human arrogance would assume homo-sapiens are the only intelligent life form in the universe.

Humans, so far, can not create supreme beings, but often make gods of things.  The concept of a god is all about perception and control. A child looks up to his or her parents as if they were gods.  They provide all wants and heal all ills.  To a student, their teacher or a professor is like a god, one who can change their entire future with one grade. To a working adult, their boss is like a god, nuff said. The wealthy sometimes cast themselves as gods by becoming drunk on power, because they can give themselves everything they desire. The unimpeachable hypocrisy of the atheist is that they embrace all these concepts and thus forgo any interest in the safety of salvation.

So, Col. Jim, what’s it got to do with Safety? Safety is about First Order Thinking, the prevention of undesired loss… a plan to maintain life.  Safety is also an action closely tied to Second Order Thinking, intentionally following a plan for managing the consequences that come after the first step in a process. For people, the first step is life, and this is where safety comes in. Life is a process that can result in a near-infinite number of consequences, all of which can end in death, even before birth. Broken down into its simplest form, the second step then is that period in our existence after our life is over.  To accomplish this, I recommend a simple system created by my friend Col. Eric Bertolet, “Work safe, Play safe, Live safe, and Love safe.”

Sitting in a rocker at the Old Place, I am, Col. Jim.