It Can’t Happen Here

When I talk about food shortages, a lot of folks roll their eyes and call me alarmist. They say, “Yes, but this is AMERICA. It can’t happen here.” Ok, let’s talk about that.

As I type this, around 290 thousand Ohioans are in the dark and without power on the hottest day of the year so far. They are without power ON PURPOSE. ON PURPOSE. The power authority turned it off on purpose to prevent strain on the grid. Meanwhile, the poorest and most disadvantaged in Columbus, OH are in the dark, hot, and hungry. There was a shooting today at a cooling center that left 1 dead and 2 wounded. How many old people are dying with no money to get gasoline to leave, and no air conditioning?

And it’s being done ON PURPOSE.

We talk a lot about normalcy bias here, which is the tendency to deny that something is happening because “it can’t happen here”. Prior to 2020, could you ever imagine a situation in which the entire nation was shut down and ordered to stay home, and told that they must provide documents and reasons for moving about? No, you couldn’t, but it happened anyway.

I have a piece of Scripture here that sums this up:

Since they heard the sound of the trumpet but did not heed the warning, their blood will be on their own head. If they had heeded the warning, they would have saved themselves.

Ezekiel 33:5

We are facing a series of crises all at the same time, which are all coming to a head at the same time. Rising gas prices, a war which cannot be contained, increasing civil tensions, electrical grid issues, incompetent governance, and a looming food shortage are all happening at the same time. A man whose opinion I value said this – we could weather any one of these at any time, but we cannot weather them all at once.

Heed the warning. Farmers are all over the internet warning about looming food shortages due to drought, fertilizer unavailability, rising feed costs, and rising diesel prices. Many of us are out on Twitter and Facebook sharing photos of the grocery stores and gas stations. Even the US government is finally admitting that we will have food shortages.

Make no mistake, I am in NO WAY saying that America will not have food. We will always have food, because God has provided us with some of the most fertile land on earth. The problem is that the food will be priced so high that the middle class won’t be able to afford it. Yes, I said the middle class because the lower-class will always be given government subsidies.

Couple this with the expected civil unrest anticipated with the Roe V Wade SCOTUS decision and you have the perfect storm for a bloody, hot, hungry, and dark summer & fall in the US. Yes, it can happen here.

“But this is America”, people say. Jerusalem was God’s Chosen City, and it was destroyed countless times. Here is a piece of Tactical Wisdom for those who say “But this is America, it can’t happen here.”:

for riches do not endure forever,
    and a crown is not secure for all generations.

Proverbs 27:24

Every single time you go to the store, buy a few extra cans of food, or maybe buy the full limit on pasta. If nothing happens and I am wrong, then you will still eventually eat the food. If I’m right, and you didn’t, you’ll be in a bad spot.

Learn how to acclimate yourself to the weather. Instead of having the thermostat set at 66, set it to 75 or 80. In the winter, lower it a bit. This way, your system isn’t shocked by the weather. Humans are actually very weather resistant, or truthfully, we used to be. The advent of heating and cooling has caused us to live our entire lives in an artificial bubble of 66-70 degrees. Vary that by 5 degrees and modern people get very uncomfortable. Spend more time outdoors.

Start walking now. If gas prices continue to climb, you will be walking no matter what, because gas stations won’t even be able to buy gas to sell to you. Start acclimating yourself to using your feet.

Learn to defend yourself. I can’t tell you what that looks like for you, but I live a martial lifestyle. I have trained in martial arts, knives, sticks, and firearms. Decide what you need to learn and get after it. You need to be able to defend yourself when hungry and angry people come looking for food, and they WILL.

Build community. Get to know your neighbors. Find like-minded people (church is great for this) and start organizing (The Baseline Training Manual has tips for this). Start seeking out those with skills you might need (radio/medical).

Take a “Stop The Bleed” or First Aid class. First aid skills are the preparedness skills you will use the most and you can start using them TODAY. Learn CPR and how to use an AED (automated external defibrillator – It’s easy).

Check on your elderly neighbors and family. Those on a fixed income are being hit the hardest with no relief in sight. Make sure they are OK and offer to drive them to appointments or the store. We owe them a debt of gratitude.

As we close this out, I want to mention a special opportunity for our readers. LiteBand is launching a new line of headbands and the owner, Randall Coe, has made a special offer for our readers. If you make a pledge to the Kickstarter campaign to fund this (see below), you can email a screen shot of your confirmation to info@liteband.com, mentioning that you heard about the project here, Randall will send a spare alkaline battery pack to run the LiteBand with regular batteries, in addition to the included rechargeable battery. I have two LiteBands and I supported this project at the CAMO level because I know Randall stands behind his stuff (I had an issue with my first one and Randall went above & beyond to fix it). Check out the Kickstarter at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/multi-beam-liteband/multi-beam-comfortable-lightweight-illumination-near-or-far?ref=project_build

Get over the normalcy bias and PREPARE!

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