Dear Mr. Rawles,
First, I want to take a moment to tell you how much we love your blog site. The amount of well thought out information that you have available is a great resource for all of us.
I would however like to discuss a disturbing trend I am seeing on your blog. While your distrust of the policies and actions of the government may be well founded I am worried about the anti law enforcement sentiment that is popping up is troubling. I would never tell anybody to blindly trust or follow any one person or group of people but to distrust any entire group based on their vocation is extremely biased. I had a sergeant who was found of asking people why they judged us on our color. He would always get a response of “no I’m not” or “that’s crazy we’re the same color!” My sergeant would reply “blue, you’re judging us on the color of our uniform, blue.” I say we are being judged on our uniform now.
I have been attending The Catholic Church for most of my life. Many of you may remember the despicable actions of several members of the clergy from the news. While their actions were appalling and in my eyes deserved a much more severe punishment, it did not warrant a mistrust of all clergy of all faiths. Have there been police officers who treated people unfairly or even broken the laws they were sworn to uphold? Of course! There have also been teachers who preyed on the very children they were there to help. Soldiers who attacked and abused their own female counterparts. The list is unfoundedly endless. I far from condone these actions, in fact I think harsher penalties are due to those who abuse their power. You simply cannot judge an entire group by the actions of a few of its members.
I have been a medic, firefighter and most recently a police officer. I am proud of my chosen vocation and will lay down my life if called upon to do so. I have attended the funerals of more of my brothers and sisters then I care to discuss. The number of officers that have been killed in the line of duty is rising at an alarming rate. These are men and women who laid down their lives for the same good people who read this blog. I tell the people that I come in contact with to get their concealed weapons permit and carry regularly! I have sworn to uphold the laws of this state and the constitution of our great country so I tell people to get the permit. I have even gone so far as to put citizens in contact with instructors. If it were up to me they would need no permit but it’s not so I direct them to the legal path of self protection. Saying that LEOs are all out to get you is, in my eyes, the same as a LEO saying that all preppers are domestic terrorists. I’m not saying to trust every cop you see. Rather, I’m just asking that you give them the same opportunity to earn your trust as anybody else. Remember that at the end of the day most of us are just trying to make a difference in our communities. I don’t want to take away the rights of any citizens. I think the attacks on the 2nd amendment are a threat to the life and liberty of every American. I can tell you that if, and when in my opinion, guns are outlawed and officers are called upon to collect them it will be a slow day at the office. I can’t speak for every officer everywhere but I can tell you I have yet to meet one who would even try to take guns out of the hands of honest hard working Americans.
I learned about this blog from other officers at my department who share the worries of many of the readers here. It is my wish that more good Christians were able and willing to take care of themselves. I wish that every decent person was armed and when some crazy person attacks a school or movie theater they were able to stop him or her before anybody lost their lives. A lot, maybe most, of people today are unwilling to protect themselves. I believe there are many reasons why this is so and could no doubt fill an entire article with them but the fact remains, it falls on a few to protect the many. I will continue to be an avid follower and supporter of SurvivalBlog but it is my hope that my fellow readers will see the men and women who protect and serve for what they are: people. – A Prepared Sheepdog