Typing the title of this post immediately evoked memories of the movie “Marathon Man,” of the diabolical Szell using dental torture in an attempt to extract [sic] information from the clueless Babe.
It’s a good film, now 48 years old. But that’s not what I want to talk about today.
Since we first set foot on The Mountain almost three years ago, I’ve used words like “peaceful” and, quite often, “isolated.” But is it safe?
The more intellectually honest and aware you are, the more foolish that question sounds. The Mountain is many things, many wonderful things. “Safe” isn’t one of them.
Let’s all agree that safe isn’t a yes-or-no proposition. It’s relative, of course, a matter of degrees. In that sense, The Mountain is safer than many locales.
Lots of places once considered relatively safe are much less so today. Some are downright dangerous. Why is that? What happened?
Deb and I watched the decline of the town surrounding Second Chance Ranch. It went from Mayberry to multicultural in a very few years, with corresponding increases in crime and decay.
And we’ve all seen once-great cities devolve into shitholes. Even entire states, like Montana and Colorado, have been transformed (and not in good ways).
Is it a political thing? Sure, at least partly. Electing people who don’t hold the values that made and kept a place relatively safe can incrementally (and sometimes rapidly) steer it into a skid.
But, like Epstein, those politicians don’t elect and re-elect themselves. Responsibility for the decline of a place rests with a populace that fails to defend their home, their culture and their way of life.
Most of the blame rightly can be assigned to people who do nothing. They’re the complacent among us, the arrogant, the deluded and the blissfully ignorant, the ones who (somehow) think that they can preserve what they have by complaining that it ain’t the way it was.
The worst of that bunch, it seems to me, misdirect their ire at those of us who see danger and sound the alarm, even quietly. Our vigilance is labeled “fear.” It’s as if threats don’t exist as long as they’re unacknowleded.
I hope you’re smarter than that. Deb and I are.
We came to The Mountain with a mindset, honed by experience, that what we have won’t survive without constant vigilance. That attitude is born not of fear, but from a fierce commitment to defend what’s here, what’s ours.
I can tell you that most of our neighbors are like-minded. That way of thinking is not, however, universal. We’ve even been admonished:
“For you to come to one of the safest places on Earth and not only bring your fear but try to spread it here is off-putting.”
That can’t help but affect our relationship with them, but it won’t change us or how we live our American Life on The Mountain.
We’ll continue to be good neighbors, to all of our neighbors, by doing what good neighbors do — helping whenever we can, and minding our own business.
It remains the perfect place for us to be. But it isn’t a “safe space.”
It never was.
As expected, Deb is still sick and stayed Home from work today. In a way, she picked a good day to be cooped up indoors — the camper’s windows admitted healing sunshine, while keeping the chill out.
And it’s definitely chilly, as if winter is shaking its fists at us on its way out the door. The thermometer read 28°F at dawn this morning, and we saw a high of just 47°F this afternoon. Tomorrow is forecast to begin at 26°F before rebounding to the upper 60s.
Is this the last of the cold this season? Time will tell.
I picked up some of Deb’s regular chores today, enough to let her rest but not so much that she was totally immobile. Moving, even around the confines of the camper, is itself a step toward healing. I’m happy to report that she improved over the course of the day, though she’ll be Home again tomorrow.
I also was especially mindful of my own health, hoping that I don’t catch what she has. Like the seasons, time will tell.
Take care of yourselves, Patriots. Stay calm. Stay sharp. Stay free.
#WiseUp #LibertyOrDeath #Ungovernable
#LetsGoBrandon #FJB