As The SHTF, Be A Role Model
Posted on March 17, 2020 by Salty
As The SHTF, Be A Role Model
The quality of a man or a woman can readily be judged when times get tough and the Stuff Hits The Fan. Does he or she turn into a complete jerk, or show grace under pressure?
The other day I had a co-worker (who’s husband is an in-the-closet prepper) ask me “so how many people have told you “you were right!” about all the prepping stuff.
My answer? Being able to say “I was right” isn’t the answer. Being in a position to survive and thrive, THAT is what matters.
A PG rating for language
We generally try to keep 3BY G-rated, but this article (because I am quoting some stuff that was not written with a G-rated publication in mind is going to have a bit of naughty language. Nothing blasphemous, that we will not do… but a bit of “salt”. If that isn’t your thing, then this is the time to flip back to the main page of the site (CLICKY) and check out another article.
Jim Cobb shared the following on social media
Jim shared the following with his friends on social media, and made it public and available to share so I thought I would drop it here because he makes some great sense.
Something to keep in mind as you see all the photos rolling in of empty shelves and people buying cartloads of stuff.
Should they have been prepped already? Yes, absolutely. But, they weren’t and now they’re being told they need to put together 30 days’ worth of food and necessities.
Some are panicking, sure, but lots of them are trying to play catch-up. I’m not talking about the people buying 197 rolls of toilet paper.
I’m talking about the single mom who gets paid every other Friday and jumped out of bed this morning, hoping to get together enough food for her two kids who are suddenly going to be home all day long the next few weeks. Or the family who has been working their ***** off the last two years climbing out of debt and who are now debating whether they should drain their meager savings and sink it into groceries.
Should they have listened to us a month ago? Yep. Should they have listened to us all along? Again, yes. But…
Don’t diss them because they’re buying perishable food. An awful lot of that stuff will easily last 2-3 weeks if it is stored properly.
Don’t diss them because they’re buying frozen food. Nothing so far would indicate we’re going to lose power as a result of the pandemic.
Don’t diss them because they’re buying food. They’re trying to do what they’re being told to do.
Hell, a lot of preppers were making fun of them for buying toilet paper and asking why they weren’t buying food. Now that they’re buying food, you’re gonna give them **** for that, too?
C’mon, you’re better than that.
Truth… We ARE better than that!
Not only are we better than that, but we are also presented with an opportunity to step up and help members of our community because we are in a position of strength.
Assuming we have been prepping for a while, this is the type of emergency that nearly everybody should be ready for… a bug-in situation where we lean on our preps and our knowledge. We plant our gardens, we isolate ourselves and we wait it out.
How we can be role models without “outing” ourselves
For those people who are still struggling to prepare, or just starting, we can offer guidance and help by steering them towards the most important things to have. Example, we can help them to stop fighting over bottled water and instead buy a Berkey or Sawyer water filter.
We can show them that instead of mounds of toilet paper, they can install a bidet. We can direct them to stores that actually have the goods that the people can still buy (like in my restaurant supply article posted yesterday).
There’s all kinds of things we can do while still saying safe and while not blowing OPSEC.
Neighbor helping neighbors
Here in my home town, we are putting together a coalition of neighbors willing to make runs to the grocery store (or other places of need) to bring groceries to our neighbors who have been quarantined or simply need to stay isolated.
It works like this. The neighbor calls the grocery store and places an order. The store puts it together for them and we (our volunteers) goes and picks it up and delivers it. The person pays over the phone with a credit card or a check.
We drop the groceries off on their front porch, and they come out for them after we step away. If we get to a much deeper SHTF situation where supplies become limited, this will obviously not work, but for now it’s something that we not only can do, but SHOULD do.
Spice and I believe we were put on this Earth to do good, and helping those who need help is doing good.
Show courage in all ways – Grace under pressure
Although when he made the following statement Edward R. Murrow was talking about different circumstances, I’d like to think he would agree with me using the following quotation made of his words:
“We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine, and remember that we are not descended from fearful men…”
If you, like us, are long time preppers, we’ve got this. There’s no reason to panic. There’s no reason to sit around and complain about “who’s to blame.”
Covid-19 is to blame, and it doesn’t care about your politics, it just does what viruses do.
What will be remembered, by ourselves and by our community is is how we reacted when the chips were down. Did we stand around and bitch about everything in sight? Did we spend all of our time blaming? Or did we — within our limitations, and our need to protect ourselves and be safe — did we step up and become a part of the solution to problems around us?
Grace under pressure. We’ve thought about this. Gamed it. Planned it. Prepared for it. Now it’s time to stand and deliver… and do it in a way where we add to the answers and not the problem.
https://beansbulletsbandagesandyou....ce=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=role-model
