I hope this won't be the last time I'm able to post!

As I write this, barbarians ruling the once-highly-civilized land of Iran are trying to gain the power to destroy other nations, particularly Israel and America, for the unforgivable crime of not being ruled by the barbarians. Their madman-in-chief is claiming to be able to do something big on August 22. I didn't want this blog to be geopolitical, but events have a way of yanking our heads out of the sand, or severing our necks above the sand.

In the event of it NOT all being a bluff, we could soon be seeing a geometric increase in world strife, suffering and chaos. The means of killing people have gotten more terrible, and human beings have not gotten any less vulnerable. (No wonder we particularly like to fantasize about heroes who ARE less vulnerable to modern weapons, from old standby Superman to X-Man Wolverine.) And if terrorists succeed in doing large-scale harm to utterly-unprepared population centers, then for millions not instantly slain, further survival WILL depend on exactly the thing which this blog was first founded to discuss: loyalty between individuals.

When the neighborhood is bombed or burning, and you can't call the cops because all phones
are dead and so are the phone operators, it could make all the difference if you have others to whom you can turn in mutual help and support. Survivors of smaller-scale disasters have borne witness that caring about someone's survival _besides_ their own actually helped _them_ to stay alive too.

My deceased first wife Mary tried heroically to make a real community out of the street where we lived (the same street where Janalee and I now live). Mary saw that the War On Terror could bring about emergencies where neighbors would have no one BUT each other to call on for help. Mary is now safe in Heaven, but those of us down here may be facing a more violent mode of departure than hers. If you are reading this, and you _don't_ have any friends with whom you might make common cause for survival, try to find some! Even if you are reading this _after_ August 22 and the immediate Iranian threat did turn out to be a bluff, it _still_ is a good idea to form alliances. Mutual loyalties and cooperation are among the most vital of survival tools in dangerous times--and if the danger blows over, they give you someone with whom to share a deep sigh of relief.

Joseph "Copperfox" Ravitts