Create A Community When The Grid Goes Down

By George Thompson


Survivalist boards online are always abuzz with end-time scenarios about what will happen when the grid goes down. For many Americans, the notion of being without power, water, and a constant source of food and supplies is frightening. An entire industry has sprung up that includes solar power backups, survival gardening, and home defense.

Unfortunately, many people become militant in their thinking when it comes to what they regard as an apocalypse. Television shows have convinced us that there will be zombies to kill, or bands of unscrupulous individuals bent on death and destruction. Gun owners create stockpiles of weapons based on the assumption that trespassers will come, and they must kill or be killed.

In any emergency situation, there will be some people who panic. Being unprepared can open the door for terrible things to happen to them. There is no reason why one in a more comfortable circumstance should become that terrible thing to someone who has had to flee their home in the face of apocalyptic scenarios.

While we cannot always count on law enforcement or the military to protect us, we still have to use some basic common goodness when regarding other people. Most refugees travel in family groups and are more than willing to identify themselves to anyone they approach. The Great Depression taught us just how people come together and help one another in a crisis scenario.

Anyone owning firearms should maintain a personal understanding that no round should ever be fired unless they can clearly see who they are shooting at, and clearly know why they are firing the shot. An overzealous gun owner may wind up firing a shot that they will regret for the rest of their lives. Most people wandering the countryside in this scenario are probably traveling in family groups, and they simply seek food and shelter.

To deny food and shelter to a group of people simply because they are not family is cruel. It's important to remember that these periods of collapse are always temporary, and a family is not likely to starve to death because they helped a stranger in need. Most approaching strangers pose no threat, and should violence ensue, murder is still murder at the end of the day.

In fact, one must anticipate many travelers to be armed themselves. A person who would not have intended any harm will suddenly become a dangerous enemy in the face of an aggressor firing upon them needlessly. This would be a ridiculous tragedy which can be easily avoided if cooler heads are able to prevail.

When a group of refugees is taken in and fed, it grants an opportunity to find out what kinds of skills or assets they might be able to bring to your table. How we handle crisis situations can define us as people, and it is important what history says about us. Rather than seeing a group as an unnecessary group of refugees, one might take the perspective that they are the start of an independent community.




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