A Time For Tasers

It makes for a good story when, once upon a time, the hero is set upon by highway men, or the evil king’s men, or thugs and either manages to stagger into the path of a fair maiden, or is found by her brother and taken to their home. Once there she sheds sweet tears over his suffering form and gently nurses him back to health. Of course she is always fair and always a maiden, so once he recovers they end up marrying and living happily ever after.

Truth be told, I cannot imagine it going that way at all.

All of my experiences, meager as they thankfully are, did not end up with me shedding sweet tears. Oh, I shed the tears and the feelings were most definitely there. Who cannot feel for someone who has been wronged, or hurt, by unfair and unscrupulous people.

The tears, though, often came from a feeling of impotence, a sense of frustration and fury that this happened in the first place. And instead of sitting there dreaming sweet thoughts of happy days to come and the children that would result from this tragedy, I found myself angry and plotting ways to get back at the scum who did it.

And if that truth is told once more? I was never really able to do much about it.

Is it possible that my more pacifist type behaviors came out of these sorts of experiences? Was it out of a sense of helplessness that I chose to choose more peaceful ways? I don’t think so. Those feelings don’t tend to blend quietly into turn the other cheek for me. I have to wrestle them down, find something else I can do that will eat up that hateful energy that rises as naturally within me as lava does from a volcano. I need to rant and fume and then cry real tears of my own pain before I can do anything else. I am, after all, much more human than you might believe.

Who can reason from weakness when cornered on a dark night, or alone in an alley? Peaceful ways have already failed at this point. The idea that you can joke your way out is more romantic and risky than the once upon a time story. The imminent danger to an innocent man or woman in this place is pretty clear. There is a time for Tasers and pepper spray and this is almost certainly it.

Like the Lysol spray I use, they help keep the scum under control until a better solution has time to filter down.