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| Brianna, 9, getting AK-47 out of truck during training session. |
As I read and viewed Brian Blanco's remarkable photo essay "An Amendment Revisited" I was deeply and profoundly upset. There was this acute visceral reaction that went way beyond being merely alarmed or even repulsed. I was certainly all of those things but there was much, much more. Whatever it was kicked me in the gut.
Last December Blanco photographed a training session of the North Florida Survival Group (NFSG) led by Jim Foster, a former cop. “The government is trying to disarm us,” said Jim. “There weren’t enough dead bodies to do it before, but now they’ve got the bodies of 26 dead kids and I’m afraid that’s enough for them to get what they want.”
The purpose of the NFSG is to teach children and adults how to handle weapons and how to survive in the wild. Big Jim refers to it as a "militia" because, you see, he and his fellow members are willing to die to defend the Constitution, especially the Second Amendment. I prefer to call them what they really are: "domestic terrorists" and abusive parents.
There is so much that comes through in these brilliantly colored photos besides how silly these sick clowns look playing war games in all their paranoid fantasies Look closely at the faces of these children. Do they look like your average happy and well adjusted kids? And this little girl - at 9 years old with dyed hair already. This is beyond sick. Beyond disturbing. Beyond depressing.
Last December Blanco photographed a training session of the North Florida Survival Group (NFSG) led by Jim Foster, a former cop. “The government is trying to disarm us,” said Jim. “There weren’t enough dead bodies to do it before, but now they’ve got the bodies of 26 dead kids and I’m afraid that’s enough for them to get what they want.”
The purpose of the NFSG is to teach children and adults how to handle weapons and how to survive in the wild. Big Jim refers to it as a "militia" because, you see, he and his fellow members are willing to die to defend the Constitution, especially the Second Amendment. I prefer to call them what they really are: "domestic terrorists" and abusive parents.
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| Waiting to join others in enemy contact drills. |
There is so much that comes through in these brilliantly colored photos besides how silly these sick clowns look playing war games in all their paranoid fantasies Look closely at the faces of these children. Do they look like your average happy and well adjusted kids? And this little girl - at 9 years old with dyed hair already. This is beyond sick. Beyond disturbing. Beyond depressing.
While the government isn't likely to take away their guns (unfortunately) maybe the children can still be saved from growing up paranoid, screwed up and angry. After going through the main article be sure to link to the photo gallery appropriately called Training Child Survivalists. If you wonder when was the last time these kids were hugged, I don't think you'll be alone.
How is that mindset much different than this ?
ReplyDeleteBB-Idaho: I deleted my first response because I didn't notice that "this" was a link to that incredibly interesting article. There should be a huge difference between the mindset here and the one in Somalia, the Congo, Uganda, and even Iraq and Nazi Germany. Unfortunately I'm becoming more and more concerned that the gap is closing. Thank you for this and I urge others to read it. (Maybe I should change the color of linked text so it stands out more?)
DeleteThis is sad and predictable. It takes all kinds. There will always be people on the fringe like Big Jim. Just keep in mind that for every one of these fringe-kook families there are thousands in which the parents don't have or want a gun, and by word and example discourage their kids from wanting guns as well. There's even reason to hope some kids raised by fringe kooks will end up being the opposite of their gun-worshiping parents. Teenage rebelliousness is a force of nature not to be underestimated.
ReplyDeleteBasically I think you're right but only because, while it might not appear to be the case, we do have a more educated populace.
DeleteI'll add, however, that I'm not nearly as optimistic about the future for these kids as you seem to be. They don't look just unhappy, they look very angry. I don't think they'll ever gain the coping skills through either education or appropriate peer pressure to overcome the fear, hate and paranoia that has been drummed into them on a daily basis since birth.
Delete“A young boy sits on a child's toy and sulks because his sister got to carry the rifle that he wanted to carry as members of the North Florida Survival Group gather for a field training exercise in Old Town, Florida”….
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful environment for the building of character, emotional resilience, mental fortitude, intellectual curiosity and the development of social skills fit to cope with a complex and varied world.
Enjoy flippin’ burgers all your days, sonny…. Sorry we couldn’t rescue you from dork-ville before the damage was irreversible.
Even if we could rescue them, I'm afraid the damage has been done - and like most children of abusive parents, they will continue to gravitate toward the abusive parent and strive to get that parent's approval. And then turn around and do it themselves to their own kids, not recognizing how miserable and controlled they were themselves. Very sad.
DeleteIt's really scary how far we haven't come.
ReplyDeleteIsn't it though?
DeleteHow many times have I read on far-right blogs that liberalism is a "mental disease." More than I care to remember. But those same people who claim that see nothing wrong with parents turning their young and impressionable children into little paranoid fascists.
ReplyDeleteDespite what the fools in this post think, their fears have nothing to do with the 2nd Amendment, their fears have to do with the changing demographics in this country, and their inability to cope with that.
Those poor, poor children.
These are usually the same parents who believe it's okay to beat hell out of their kids to shape 'em up.
DeleteSick, dangerous, abusive, neglectful -- what can anyone say? I agree, there always have been parents who force their own craziness onto their kids. Think Little League Dads and Dance Moms. What's different in this situation is the stakes are higher when it comes to safety for these kids and everyone who has to deal with them in the real world. They are doomed, through no fault of their own. And so are their future partners and children, if they live long enough to have any.
ReplyDeleteWell stated and I can't think of a thing to add to it. It's really a crying shame, if not a crime.
DeleteNot only that, but they don't look all that well-regulated to me.
ReplyDeleteNot particularly. Nope.
DeleteTwo weekends ago my lovely (and dangerous) wife and I went to Reelfoot Lake in west Tennessee for a couple of days off the map and away from the cell phones. On the drive down we stopped at an Awful Waffle for breakfast (because my doctor says I'm not getting enough chloresterol) and during our meal we were "treated" to a heavy, older woman's abuse of her small grandson. Every time the kid moved she'd bark "Do you understand me!" inches from his clenched little face. She was huge, and angry, and scary as shit, even for us at another table. We watched her drag the kid from the restaurant to her minivan, and off they went.
ReplyDeleteThe look on that little boy's face as he walked past our table reminds me so much of the look on the kids' faces in these pictures. Resigned. Hopeless. "Please, do something and help me..."
Kids aren't born with anger, bigotry, and hatred. Those are family values we pass along to them.
And the kids in those pictures will never be well adjusted. Ever.
I saw so much of that when I used to travel a lot. One time in Oklahoma, it was a grandfather abusing his grandson in much the same way. I went up to the manager and told him what my brother and I had witnessed and that we wanted to report him. The guy got all red in the face and told me that this man was an upstanding citizen of the community and a retired school principal. Frankly, he scared the shit out of me, so rather than pushing it or going to a pay phone, we opted to get the hell out of dodge. That was years ago and I have never forgotten it or forgiven myself for being so chicken shit. Miss. and Okla. were two states that I absolutely hated to drive through. There's something about heat and bad temperaments.
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