Is You Safe?

Part of our survival maintenance is to be in a place of security. These places used to be schools or churches or courts or banks or restaurants or work places.

Then special passes were given out to prove you are allowed to enter these places. Photo cards giving information giving our names and acceptance to a social circle were handed out and shown to an armed uniformed guard before we could pass through the portal. Still there was a since of security of a professional guardian protecting our sanctuary.

With every disruption to our safety our security became more and more intrusive. More investigations into our histories or our hierarchy or even our favorite faith create a database of who we are, but who are we?  How will this data be interpreted?

Extra lights on at night will give a sense of safety. Additional locks will give you more safety. A loud dog will give you safety and your neighbor’s scorn. Pepper spray, a baseball bat and (though I avoid thinking it) a gun will give you a unrealistic feeling of protecting your stuff and your family from unknown threats.

Is this the new normal? Are we to cowl in fear at every passing look or loud noise? Are we to hide behind our closed windows trembling in fear to face the day?

What about the food presented by a stranger in a restaurant? What about the taxi driver? What about the co-worker? What about the boss? What about your children’s friends? What about your wife?

When I was young in school we used to have a drill. It was called ‘duck and cover’. Our little feet would shuffle us under a desk or into a hallway and we would put our arms over our heads and close our eyes until the teacher said we could go back to being students.

This drill was for a possible nuclear attack. We were being told to duck an atomic bomb.