Because of you, Laura, I called my kids and they agreed to teach me how use my cell phone to film.

I also thought back long and hard and cannot recall a single incident where intervention was called for, that I just stood there and watched. I’ve been told I’m confrontational, but that just isn’t true. If you let bad things go, they get worse and worse. Better to nip them in the bud before they gather steam.

I think everyone adapts to their environment and if violence is part of our environment, we adapt to it, one way or another.

Even as a little kid, I was an obsessive reader. Tuning everything out and focusing my mind on a book, was how I adapted to all the awful shit going on around me. It was also unusual enough, that people didn’t know what to make of it. A couple people made fun of me, but they were also curious. When someone asked me what I was reading, I would tell them the story. While I ended up with a knack for storytelling, that’s also how I learned how to use my voice.

Our voices have tremendous range and mine ranges the spectrum from soft and soothing, to commanding. No matter what was happening, I’ve always had complete control over my voice. In the midst of trouble, something about the sound of a voice under control seems to give people direction and they gravitate towards the sound. So far, my voice has been my best defense. As I said, I told the robber “no” – but it was the sound of my no, that made him back off.

I am sufficiently aware of the power of my own voice, to be careful about how I use it (and rarely miss my mark). I’ve been told I am formidable too many times to dismiss.

In addition to teaching me how to use my voice, reading gave me a good vocabulary and martial arts taught me how to use my body language. I also learned a lot from working with a linguist, who specialized in textual analysis.

If you listen close enough to hear tone of voice, you can tell where someone’s head is at. I’ve listened to quite a few videos and the cops’ tone of voice always gives them away. It doesn’t matter what words they say, they have no control over themselves. Putting guns in the hands of people who cannot control themselves is insane.

The outcome in my arrest? Everyone dropped charges and that was the end of that. Apparently, the law allows us to defend ourselves, but not another person (not even our own sister, or child).

By the by, if you have the time, I posted the second piece in my series on eugenics. When I finish the fourth and last article, I think you might appreciate the reason I maintained a focus on billionaires.

Take care and stay steady.