The Preppers Lament

The PREPPERS LAMENT

RON FOSTER

Dixie, Alabama, USA 

© 2014
by Ron Foster

All rights reserved.

ISBN
ISBN-13:

978-1497422520

ISBN-10:

1497422523

Printed in the
United States of America.

Preface

About the cover.

In the fall of 1845, the potato blight in
Ireland began.  By 1847, there was massive death and famine.  The Irish were only permitted potatoes by the English authorities, and when the potatoes perished, so did they.  As many as a quarter of the Irish population either starved or immigrated under the worst of circumstances.  Many of those who left Ireland never arrived at their destination.  Ships were known as “coffin ships.”

British colonial policies before and during the crisis exacerbated the effects of the potato blight, leading to mass death by starvation and disease. For example, in March of 1847, at the time of the Choctaw donation, 734,000 starving Irish people were forced to labor in public works projects in order to
 receive food. Little wonder that survivors referred to the year as “Black ’47.”  What potatoes were harvested was shipped, by the English, outside of Ireland.  There is certainly some question about whether these acts were intentionally genocidal, the same questions that apply to the US policy driving the Removal Act which led to the Trail of Tears.

Famine' (1997)
was commissioned by Norma Smurfit and presented to the City of Dublin in 1997. The sculpture is a commemorative work dedicated to those Irish people forced to emigrate during the 19th century Irish Famine. The bronze sculptures were designed and crafted by Dublin sculptor Rowan Gillespie and are located on Custom House Quay in Dublin's Docklands.

The photo depicts the Famine Memorial in Dublin today near the docks.  These pathetically thin people are portrayed walking towards the ships on the quay, their desperate escape to anyplace.  The story of the man on the right, carrying the child, is that by the time he arrived where there was soup, he discovered that he was carrying a dead child.

I’m always amazed at the degree of cruelty humans can carry out upon other humans.

As an academically influenced prepper fiction author, I have studied in depth the sociological and psychological impacts of how disasters influence the populace. Many of the post apocalyptic books I write include a specific story line that the books' title refers or alludes to. I have decided to call this particular book “The Preppers Lament”. This reflects our community. A strong central underlying theme of the books' purpose and lessons to learn is to construct or deconstruct just what that titles' implication or meaning applies to the reader’s own perspectives about surviving a disaster, as well as life in general...

Just what is a lament one might ask? Well, according to Webster’s, we find the word to be defined as:

la·ment

Verb

1. to express sorrow, regret, or unhappiness about something

2. To express sorrow, mourning, or regret for, often demonstratively

Now being a country boy that sometimes forgets some of his education on exactly what a word means decided that if something is done “demonstratively”, it must therefore be important that it be well       defined and so I looked this word up also.

. de·mon·stra·tive

adj.

1.
Serving to manifest or prove.

Author Note.” We preppers hope we will not have to prove our skills or depend on our preps if a disaster should manifest itself but serve ourselves and others by preparing for a perceived likelihood of inevitability”.

2.
Involving or characterized by demonstration.

Author Note.” Preppers are all about involving themselves with the community and learning from and demonstrating preparedness and survival skills.

3.
Given to or marked by the open expression of emotion: an affectionate and demonstrative family.

Author Note “The Prepper community as a whole characteristically tends to be open about their enjoying the sharing of knowledge and camaraderie that defines the movement.

4.
Grammar
Specifying or singling out the person or thing referred to: the demonstrative pronouns these and that.

“By definition we are singled out by the media and referred to as these Preppers or that Prepper and of course even those Doomsday Preppers but it doesn’t matter, we define ourselves by our actions and our deeds.

So having defined that Preppers express sorrow and regret strongly what exactly would entail qualifying some thought process specifically as a Preppers Lament?

America
has become increasingly angry, confused, depressed, sick, deranged, conflicted, addicted, suicidal, faithless and hopeless. The aftermath of 9/11 highlighted how unpredictable disasters can be and how unprepared we are as individuals as well as a nation to cope should we lose any of our precious infrastructure. This is something for everyone to lament about.

The prepper movement seeks to obtain an individual or personal level of well-being by having people take control over their own destinies and try to mitigate the numerous threats we ourselves and others perceive as risks or hazards to us and our families. By preparing for ourselves to be more self- reliant, we assuage our psyche and calm our nerves.

A lot of us utilize the prepper community as a hobby and a social platform to share similar views and beliefs under the banner of preparedness. The uncertainty of what lies ahead - and our inkling to know what lies ahead - is the perfect platform for the grassroots community to take on not only personal preparedness but also influence state and federal emergency management agencies. The Prepper community is vociferous in its dire warnings that put the challenges ahead in the spotlight and in so doing, we hope in some small way that it prepares the authorities to plan to ensure that them gloom and doomer Preppers are wrong.

The orgy of ominous predictions that greets us on the internet and news drives prepper newbie’s to the internet forums and other social media daily as our community of awareness increases.
  Is to lament about risks, disasters, unpreparedness etc. what makes us a prepper? Surely not, most people lament about such woes and worries so it’s not exclusive to preppers.

Preppers do and will lament about those who do not prep because of many reasons. People who concern us are those that refuse to be informed about the need to prepare for disasters, people who are too lazy to prep, maybe they are just self absorbed with daily living, or maybe they are just plain naïve and out of touch, also lets don’t forget about those who for no fault of their own are economically challenged and can't afford supplies. Does speculating about whether these people are a threat to us and our preps or that we will mourn for them after a disaster makes this a “Preppers Lament”? To mourn death is to lament, remember?

But the battle to define a “Preppers Lament” is simultaneously being waged on another plane: Lament can mean to want. Every time the government creates another “crisis,” it promotes and enlarges the societal stress, the emotional instability, the cultural anxiety, the brooding anger, uncertainty, dread and growing national self-doubt and gives us yet another reason to prep. The news about natural disasters and terrorist threats fuels our prepper psyches while it drains our bank accounts for latest got to have items. Prep to live folks, don’t live to prep, please, or you will find you created your own economic collapse and
living a preppers lament. For some folks, there needs to be a Preppers Anonymous like they have for shopoholics or gamblers. Remember that your mind is your biggest asset to invest in and it needs words of wisdom not dollars to enrich your survival. Your mind is better than any survival gadget you can buy.
 

What is your “Preppers Lament”? How about wishing you had purchased long-term storage food instead of all that out of date canned food you are holding on to? How about the number of times your water storage has sprung a leak because of shoddy made containers? How do you prepare for life’s laments versus prepper laments? The one thing though that I bet none of us ever laments about is becoming a prepper

Imagine That A Coordinated Cyber Attack Has Taken Down The Majority Of The Electrical Grid In
America.

Imagine That This Disaster Happened Two Weeks Ago and Your Home’s Water Quit Flowing a Week Ago.

Imagine That You Started This Catastrophe with Only a Month’s Worth of Food and Water Stored.

Imagine That  Your Neighbors Only Had About Three Days Worth Of Food On Hand Two Weeks Ago And Now They Beg You To Share What They Think You Have Put away But you Do Not Have..

Imagine That You No Longer Wish To “Share” And That Today Is The Day Of Reckoning To Tell Your Friends And Neighbors “No More” And Draw A Line In The Sand.

Imagine For Instance That You Had Somehow Already Imagined This Event Or Disaster Day and Prepared For It Because You Were A Prepper.

Would Your Disaster Survival Plan Work?

What Happens If It Does Not?

What Happens To Those People Without Anything

Put Away For These Hard Times?

“Who Dies, Who Lives, And For How Long?”

Acknowledgements

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