Brothers and Sisters and friends. I don’t mean to bring this up again but the persecution is increasing. It concerns me because I have several children and Grand children out there. Because we have such a large family I have children in 3 states. Some are in Utah close to where Charlie Kirk was brutally murdered. I want them to be safe. I want everyone to be safe. Maybe it’s my PTSD paranoia but I see this anti-Mormon rhetoric turning from words to actions. I included this good sisters letter to the University of Cincinnati athletic dirctior. I also include here a portion of the training that I have taught concerning situational awareness (SA). I start with SA because many people are hesitant about self-defense, especially carrying a weapon. Starting with SA helps them ease into self-defense and triples or quads their chances of being in a position where they would have to defend themselves or their family.
This
is a letter written by a survivor of the Grand Blanc LDS Church shooting and a
member of the Church.
“Jared
and I got to sneak away this weekend for a much needed date night. We went to
the BYU vs. Cincinnati football game. This is us trying to move on from the
attack on our church two months ago. Trying to do something fun where the
attack is not at the forefront our minds for once. This is us at the game
before all the heaviness and fear still found a way to creep in and overtake my
emotions and thoughts the next few days as the Cincinnati fans chanted hateful
words directed towards us. This has got to stop.
I
emailed the University of Cincinnati athletic director and assistant athletic
director yesterday and shared my thoughts with them. I am going to share that
email here as well, in hopes the message can extend farther than just this
incident because it happens at a lot of football games. It is unacceptable.
“Dear
Mr. Cunningham,
I am
writing to you from my heart as a disheartened college football fan. More
specifically, as a BYU football fan and member of The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints commonly known as “the Mormons.”
As a
BYU alumni and huge fans of college football, my husband and I took the
opportunity to travel 4.5 hours from our little city in Grand Blanc, Michigan
to come spectate and enjoy our favorite pass time at the BYU vs. Cincinnati
football game at Nippert Stadium last night.
I
want to provide a little bit of background for you in order to portray the
strength and courage it took for us to travel to this event and really try to
enjoy ourselves.
You
see, just eight short weeks ago, while attending church, we were attacked at
our place of worship simply for being “Mormon.”
Someone
with hatred in their heart rammed their truck into the front of our church
building, entered the chapel, and began shooting us and setting our church on
fire while many people were still hiding inside. As my family (me, my husband,
and our three young children), ran for our lives, my husband and my 5 year old
daughter were both shot. I was also running with my 15 month old baby and my 3
year old in my arms as I was struck in my back with shrapnel. I will spare you
any further details about the nightmare we lived through that day and the
recovery that has followed, but miraculously, me and my family all made it out
alive.
The
anxiety and fear we have felt since that day has been debilitating. We have put
in a lot of work in that short 8 weeks so we can try to feel some sort of
safety and normalcy again and enjoy the things we used to, including football
games.
We
had been planning to come see this game for months as we don’t get the
opportunity to see many BYU games in person since we moved across the country
for my husband’s medical training. We almost didn’t come because it felt scary
and overwhelming since the attack on our church. However, we know we cannot
live in fear and we need to enjoy the things that used to make us happy. We
decided to come and that took a lot for us both mentally and physically. I was
nervous putting on my BYU fan gear that day because I knew it would identify me
as one of ”the Mormons.” I did it anyway.
I was
apprehensive when I walked down to my seat and saw that the nearest exit was
pretty far from me. I continued to my seat anyway. We came. We smiled. We
cheered. We enjoyed ourselves….Until the University of Cincinnati fans began to
chant “F*** the Mormons.”
This
is not a new chant. This is not a chant that is specific to your university.
This is a chant I’ve heard before while enjoying a football game whether
in-person or on tv. It’s always disheartening to hear. However, now that we
Mormons have been quite literally targeted, attacked, chased, shot at, and some
of us have been killed simply for being “Mormon,” this chant is no longer just
disheartening. It’s crippling. It’s personal. It’s unacceptable. Period.
While
I did hear the announcer give a warning over the speakers at the game that such
chants will not be tolerated, it was simply just that- a warning. It was not
just a few fans, it was tens, possibly hundreds of the university’s student
fans chanting “F*** the Mormons.”
Please,
Mr. Cunningham, do not tolerate it. Remove them from the game. Don’t let them
come back. Educate them on the seriousness of their actions. Set that standard
and expectation moving forward and enforce it. We are hurting. Badly. We just
want to enjoy the things that make us happy again without the fear of being
targeted and attacked for our religious beliefs.
I
know you have no control over the Cincy fans on the shuttle after the game
ranting about Mormons and how awful we are and how we must have just paid off
the refs because we’re corrupt and evil. I don’t get it, but I am used to it.
It’s not new to me to hear this stuff and these huge misconceptions about my
faith. But now it is personal. Now it is me fearing for my life everywhere I go
because someone decided to take it there. Someone tried to kill me, my kids,
and my husband. Someone killed 4 of my friends. Now the chanting means
something more than it used to.
I
know you can’t control the actions and words of the fans on the bus. However, I
do believe you have the ability to get control of the students’ hurtful and
hateful chanting.
If
you made it this far, thank you for listening. If I am mistaken about any
actions that were or were not taken as a result of the chanting, please feel
free to correct me.
I
would welcome the reassurance.
Sincerely,
Brandi
Hicken
A
fellow college football fan
A
Mormon
A
Christian
A
mass casualty hate crime survivor
A
human deserving of respect”
I first learned of the Color Code from Jeff
Cooper himself teaching a portion of the Air Force Combat Arms Instructor
Course in the early 80's.
The color code as originally introduced by Jeff,
had nothing to do with tactical situations or alertness levels, but rather with
one's state of mind. It relates to the degree of peril you are
willing to do something about and which allows you to move from one level of
mindset to another to enable you to properly handle a given situation. Jeff
didn't claim to have invented anything in particular with the color code, but
he was apparently the first to use it as an indication of mental state.
During my time in the military I taught classes
on thinking tactically. I taught the
importance of living in Yellow. It’s
true for the average person as it is for the battlefield. A lethal
confrontation is not something anyone expects. An excellent explanation of the
real world was given in the novel State of Fear, by Micheal Criton, and
I have paraphrased it here.
"If someone tries to kill you, you don't
have the option of averting your eyes or changing the subject. You are forced
to deal with that person’s behavior. The experience is in fact a loss of
certain illusions. The world is not how you want it to be, it is the way it is.
There are bad people in the world and they need to be stopped."
The color code defines four different mental
states. Why four? Because three doesn't adequately cover the subject and five
is too much to remember. The four colors used are white, yellow, orange, and
red.
White - Relaxed, unaware, and unprepared. If attacked
in this state the only thing that may save you is the inadequacy and ineptitude
of your attacker. When confronted by something nasty your reaction will
probably be, "This can't be happening to me."
Yellow - Relaxed alertness. No specific
threat situation. Your mindset is that "today could be the day I may have
to defend myself." There is no specific threat but you are aware that the
world is an unfriendly place and that you are prepared to do something if
necessary. You use your eyes and ears, and your body language says "I am
alert." You don't have to be armed in this state but if you are armed you
must be in yellow. When confronted by something nasty your reaction will
probably be, "I thought this might happen someday." You can live in
this state indefinitely.
Orange - Specific alert. Something not
quite right has gotten your attention and you shift your primary focus to that
thing. Something is "wrong" with a person or object. Something may
happen. Your mindset is that "I may have to fight that
person." If you are armed your pistol is usually holstered in this state.
You can maintain this state for several hours with ease, or a day or so with
effort.
Red - Fight trigger. This is your mental
trigger. "If that person does "x" I will fight them." If
armed your weapon may, but not necessarily, be in your hand. In Red you have
decided to act the instant the threat’s behavior warrants an immediate
response.
You should always be in Yellow.
Mindset
We’ve talked about how to think before violence
happens. To continue, know that there is
a potential problem. Don’t get caught in
the mind game of the Normalcy Bias. The
Normalcy Bias is a psychological state of denial in the event of disaster or
violence. This is because some people have a difficult time believing their
lives can change dramatically. Their denial is based on the assumption that if
the disaster/violence has not occurred until now, it will never occur.
The reason that Normalcy Bias is so dangerous is
that when the violence happens it’s too late for preparation.
Normalcy Bias is a state of mind that develops
before the disaster or violence even starts, and it gets worse once the event
hits. Disaster and violence are similar
except that violence usually is fast and doesn’t always last a long time, the
opposite of disasters. Alike disasters, violence can happen anytime, and
anywhere. Some people believe that if
they live in a good neighborhood that nothing bad will happen.
The Normalcy Bias can
cause people to not prepare or to not understand reality. It can get you killed. How can you use this in your life? Stay in Yellow.
Please
be aware of your surroundings in this holiday season and always. As members of the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints we can sometimes be very trusting of others and strangers. Be aware and wary. We don’t need to think every person is evil
but like General James Mattis said:
“Be polite, be
professional, but have a plan to kill everyone you meet.”
This seems like
the words of a over-zealous killer. But
notice he didn’t say “Kill everyone you meet” but have a plan in case you need
to kill everyone you meet. Have a plan. Likely
you won’t need to ever kill anyone, but if you need to then what? Do you have a plan of defense? If not, get one.
As men in the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints we believe we have duties we should
perform. Some of these are outlined in
the document titled “The Family: A Proclamation to the World”
“By divine design, fathers are to preside over their families
in love and righteousness and are responsible to provide the necessities of
life and protection for their families.”
This refers
to God telling us as Fathers that we are preside in our families, provide for
them, and to protect them. This tells me
that I should have a plan of protection for my family and for myself.
As
persecution changes and moves into something more physical will we be able to
avoid it? I hope we can. As the
scriptures say in Daniel 3:17-18 “…But
if not…”. You can be very safe in North
America, but if not, you should have a plan.
Semper
Paratus
Check 6
Burn
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