BLOG #08a - Violence - Avoiding It
So, I moved back to Chicago during the Summer of 2011, and one of the first things I was warned about was "street violence" in one area or another. The funny thing is: one of the first things I was ever made aware of (as a youth growing up in Chicago) was "street violence."
Of course, over the years, the mindset behind common violence has not changed much. It just seems that "the matrix" has everyone in a tiff about the economy, and opportunists take advantage of the media to create and/or perpetuate the mentality amongst the people. So, what is the solution? How can we prevent violence from darkening our doorsteps, or from overshadowing our peace-of-mind?
I, recently, taught an introductory self-defense class for a women's group, and I posed a question to them:
How many of you can dodge a bullet?
As you might expect, the resounding answer among them was: "None of us can dodge a bullet."
I countered with a simple insight, which I am sure you can get behind:
If you have avoided putting yourself in a situation where violence might have been the likely outcome, then you have (after a manner) effectively "dodged a bullet or two" during the course of your life. After they opened themselves to this perspective outside the normal way of thinking, I knew their minds were ready for the lesson of the evening. So, what would have been YOUR answer? Probably the same, right?
Well, the point being made was that the choices you make to go into certain situations or environments does carry a certain "weight" in your efforts to stay safe and defend yourself, even in this violent world of ours.
As food for thought, here are a few simple tips which will help you to avoid being caught up or victimized:
1. Minimize or eliminate whatever distractions you are allowing to divide your awareness of your surroundings. For instance, don't text while you are alone and unprotected from sudden approaches. Also, turn off the mp3 player so that you can hear what is happening around you.
2. When you are in a preparing to "go out" into the public, know where everything you need is located on your person. If you are caught off guard in a dangerous situation, you may not have the chance to perform a body-cavity search on yourself for a weapon, keys, etc.
3. Prepare yourself and minimize your exposure to violent acts. For example: If your wallet has everything in it, but you only need a five dollar bill, put the five dollars somewhere easily reached, and the wallet somewhere secure.
4. This one was taught to me by my father, who was pretty street savvy (probably out of necessity, living on Chicago's Eastside: VARY YOUR ROUTE. If you do something, regularly, try to create "purposeful variance" in your route, schedule, pace and everything else you can to keep any predators from easily planning an assault.
These are just a few things that may help you to avoid unnecessary risks of violence in your daily life. Do yourself a favor and think of some other things that can possibly help keep you and your loved ones out of harm's way.
It is true that sometimes we (or our youths, here in Chicago and other inner city communities) often find ourselves in places that we have to be, and many of those places expose us to elements that would express their violence, either toward us or around us. We will discuss that in our next blog session.
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