Post Independent
Out on a Limb
Ross L. Talbott
Glenwood Springs, CO Colorado

Nowadays, gender identity is a big issue. Women are trying to be men, and men are trying to be women, and if that seems strange to you, you are an intolerant bigot.

Is it too unrealistic to describe today's American man as a fat guy in shorts walking a poodle while his wife works?

There are ramifications to this DB syndrome. The main reason youth gangs can control neighborhoods is the lack of real men willing to protect their wives and children. Of course, the lack of good mothers also plays a part.

I'll agree with that.

I hope, should I ever be in a situation like that at Virginia Tech, that I will have the courage to act as a true man does, not as a scared child does.

Big difference being in that situation though. Unless you have been under fire, you never know how you will act and things that have recently happened will impact your reactions as well.

Recently I was with a friend, his GF, and her two children. It was out in the woods and people shooting on the nearby properties is pretty common. However, on this day a couple of shots were especially loud and to the point that it was not unreasonable to assume too close. While everyone else was looking up, I was already out the door making sure that the kids were okay and verified that the shots were actually coming from the next property over. When I went back in the GF looked up at me, completely astonished and stated something like "I have never seen anyone run towards gunfire before."

Had the children not been out there or a dozen other things I might have sat there too, you never know for sure until it happens.

I've been involved, as close bystander, in a mass killing situation in 1989 when a crazy gunmen came into my university (Polytechnique), seperated men and women in a class, and shot the women (14 died).

I think that going into the face of gunfire is an unnatural act and has nothing to do with  being a real man or women; 99% of human being will flee and I did too, the gunfire was one floor down, I heard in BANG, BANG, BANG.... What direction is he going... I was running right, left, we all felt like headless chicken, when we were sure he was going in one direction from the gunfire we went the opposite way, found a corner staircase and went down the stairs and out in seconds... While that was going on, I didn't think, It 1000% of adrenaline... I called my mother as soon as I had my mind back so she didn't worry while the shooter was still inside shooting.

Next day, I found out he only shot women, and I knew two of them, I did two session long projects with each of them, they were my age, young brillant women with such a future in front of them cut down by a mysoginist!!! I cried for hours. 

I'm sorry to hear you were at Ecole Polytechnique at that time Keira. That must've been absolutely terrifying and then devastating afterwards.

Dennis

<sigh> another conservative.  The scary part is, he really believes he's right, and that's the best way to run society. 

I disagree with his narrative.  But there's no good articulation of a nurturant alternative that addresses all his fears with healthier alternatives than winning through belligerence.  Until we who disagree come up with a viable alternative to this canned ditto-ism, we're going to have to put up with yay-hoos like this.

Karen