"Better Safe Than Sorry"

My blog (and all blogs, but particularly this one because it is mine) seems like the perfect place to explain something about myself.

I am a big fan of the Internet, always have been. But I don't think I will shock anyone by saying there are some aspects of the community I could do without. This is not a funny peice. There are many things on the web that are completely useless, harmless and can occationally give those die-hard web-surfers a chuckle now and then.

Bear with me while I digress a bit more. Email forwards are 99% annoying. Very rarely are they useful, but it's nice sometimes to know that your friends are thinking about you. Maybe they didn't have the time to write you an originally authored email, but the forward they send will do. And isn't it better than spam and pop-ups?

With that in mind, today I recieved an email from a friend. Well, actually one of my mother's close friends, but I consider her a friend. This email was titled: "a must read". I opened the email and the first line read: "Abduction Precautions for Women". I should have instantly closed the email and deleted it (I did actually close the email, but read it later). This is my least favorite type of email. Yes, I hate it even more than the religious forwards and the joke lists and the chain letters and stupid animated gif picture mails, combined.

These emails are even more evil than your local nightly news for one reason: I completely disagree with the theory "IT IS ALWAYS BETTER TO BE SAFE THAN SORRY. (And better paranoid than dead.)". Personally, I would rather have no life, than a life lived in overwelming fear.

I know the world is not a safe place, but I try to live like maybe it could be. I'm not saying a woman (or man) walking home at night, alone, should choose to walk down a dark alley instead of a well-lit main street. Dogs (and assailants) can smell fear and I don't like to show any. You can hide some fear, but you can't hide as much fear as media and this kind of propaganda would like for us to have.

My friends email forward continued and gave all kinds of tactics to avoid being attacked and abducted. Statistically backed ideas and true-life what-not-to-dos can't compete with the advise I will give you right now. Don't be affraid. Don't be affraid and you wont appear weak, you wont appear vonerable. Walk down the street at night the same way you would walk through the park on a warm sunny day with your boyfriend (or girlfriend). That attitude would scare away the half-hearted attacker and the whole-hearted attacked wouldn't have been scared by much.

Horrible, aweful things happen to men and women everyday in every nation and culture. I hope nothing unthinkable ever happens to me or you or someone you love. And I hope it hasn't already. The same media that is mostly responsable for young boys seeing women as objects is now trying to warn us not to leave our houses. It's all a bunch of hooey.

I hope I don't die by the hand of anyone else. If I do, at least you'll all know that I lived my life without looking over my shoulder.

If you would like to read these Abduction Precautions for Women, here is a copy. Who am I to say anything, they just might save your life.