I once scared off a threatening, would-be bad guy by turning his verbal abuse back on him. I screamed at him with righteous indignation. When he ran out into the street to get away from me, a terrified look on his face, I told him to get back here so I could rip him out a new one. He couldn't believe my audacity and ran off. People looked at me in horror. But my 9 year old son and I had not a hair on either of our heads bothered.Another time, when my son was a still a toddler, we were followed by a masturbating guy in a car. We were walking. I had made the mistake of seeing him, so he thought he should follow us, block by block, to, I guess, get off on our traumatization. This went on for about a mile, getting progressively scarier. When he was waiting for us in a parking lot, leaning against the back of his car, his thing in his hand and a smug look on his face, I traumatized him. I, very loudly, made fun of his nasty, puny little thing and repeatedly hollered out his license plate number as he roared away in a terrified cloud of black exhaust fumes. His license plate number was the first thing I said when I called 911 at the pay phone on the next block. I didn't have a pencil. He was long gone when the cops arrived, but the cops were clearly impressed with my treatment of him. I don't know if they ever found him, but I'm pretty sure he didn't get off!
I did not have pepper spray, an assault rifle, or any other so-called security devise. I didn't even have a pencil. All I had was a secure sense of myself. And ya' know what? That's all I needed. It's all anybody needs. The only thing we have to fear, as FDR so correctly said, is Fear, itself. Fear is how a woman becomes the victim of a creep on the street. And fear is how a country creates situations resulting in its being attacked. One is writ small, the other writ large, but it's the same thing. Fear. When we replace a belief in our inherent strength with a belief in the artificial systems designed to supposedly protect us, and our stuff, we make ourselves ever more weak and dependent. Which makes us more afraid. It's a vicious circle. It brings us to the point of saying things like, “Well if I'm not doing anything wrong, it doesn't matter if the government spies on me.”
Security is a state of mind, nothing else. Every brilliant innovation in the improvement of so-called security systems has its counter-part...an equally brilliant way of breaching it. Remember. The cops only come after the fact. They can't prevent anything. Only awareness and a refusal to be dominated by fear prevents becoming a victim. Wire taps cannot prevent foreign invaders. If they really want to invade, nothing can stop them. Where there's a will, there's a way. The only thing a fear-based system like this can do is make people more dependent, afraid and obedient to the forces who, in reality, care only about oil.
Was I afraid of these men on the street? Yes. But adrenaline came to my defense and I ran with it.
Oh yeah. There is something that can prevent foreign invaders. A foreign policy based on decency. That prevents a lot of trouble.
Anne has finished her first novel and is busy peddling it to agents and publishers. She can be found wandering the streets of Crestone, CO and hanging out in Internet cafes. Contact her at annepyterek@gmail.com
