If you are like many Americans, life in general is complicated, fast paced, about having too many choices and too little time to accomplish all the “tasks of life”. So, in life, we make hard choices all the time. It’s like doctors and nurses working triage, sorting out the more serious life-threatening problems and then working on repairing the damage to less serious issues. But life is not exactly like an emergency room because we can make choices, lifestyle and safety choices that can hopefully help us avoid the emergency rooms altogether.
Multitasking- now there is a word that all the women in my life are far more familiar with and better at accomplishing than me and my male friends and family. I know I am generalizing and stereotyping right now, but stay with me after your eyes roll. The world around us has changed, both at home and abroad. We are not as safe as we once were and thankfully, many more Americans are waking up to this safety fact. Some of my friends have argued that nothing has changed, but rather, we simply have quicker access to news and information about more topics than we can consume due to the sheer volume of data; but I disagree and here is why.
The United States of America created DEA, BATF, ICE and most recently, DHS to deal with just some of these dangers we face. I will agree we have always had violence throughout the world, but with the proliferation of drugs, weapons, gangland wars, militant religious fascism, human trafficking and political polarization, America, and the world, are more volatile than ever before. On August 14th, The Department of Homeland Security and The Alabama Baptist (TAB) are hosting an active shooter workshop for churches throughout Alabama at The Baptist Church at McAdory. How many of you who do not think the world has become more dangerous remember going to Church even five years ago to meet with a government entity coming in for active shooter safety seminars?
Recently a movie came out about Bruce Lee, the famed 20th century martial artist/movie star. The movie is called “Birth of the Dragon” and while its commercial success may have faltered at the box office, this movie had one scene that in my humble opinion defined what Bruce Lee was about, and what many of us, Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and Counter Threat Group (CTG), today are trying to warn Americans about at this critical juncture. In the movie, Bruce is walking through a group of his martial arts students as they are performing warm-ups/punches. Bruce Lee says to them quite poignantly, “I’m not training you for the Olympics, I’m training you for the street.” Although Bruce Lee tragically died so young in 1973, his words and mindset about training the mind and body “for the street” have never been more relevant than what our citizens face today. If you are in to physical fitness and take a palates class, or participate in a cross fit gym, good for you. Physical fitness is needed, but with all the threats you face as an individual, incorporating or “multitasking” some self-defense training right now into your physical fitness would be the ideal scenario to activate that “hard to kill” mindset found in today’s military personnel. No, you will not become Bruce Lee, Chuck Norris, or even Wyatt Earp after a couple months of martial arts/firearms training. But taking a few steps in that direction will get you that much closer to having the proper mind and body preparation to deal with the mean streets in America and the world. Sadly, that even includes our places of work, and our places of worship.