Wilding

	"wilding" -  a slang term that refers to the practice of marauding in bands to terrorize strangers - to swagger and bully. -  Urban Dictionary. That we even have a word to describe this behavior makes me wonder what the Devil has gone wrong with the people in this nation.  I was asked to be an eyewitness to one of these events by the TV that hangs on my wall.  A group of teens - twenty or thirty of them - stormed a convenience store and went on a rampage.  Security cameras caught the whole thing on tape, and it was broadcast into law abiding homes across the nation during the "News at Nine".   Naturally, not a one of the youngsters involved exited the store with empty hands. Actually seeing the behavior caused me to inquire about a concealed carry permit in this state, and this time next month I'm gonna be LEGALLY armed whenever I leave the comparative safety of my home.  Before you chalk it up to me being a nut case, gun toting, mouth breathing jerk, consider a few facts.  Chicago - tourists and residents have been beset by roving gangs - they were beaten and robbed.  Public beaches in the better parts of town have been closed because of these crimes Boston - gangs are using face book to plan violence on Carson Beach. Rochester - more than 100 gang members involved in fighting and intimidation tactics at Ontario Beach Park Atlanta - several passengers were beaten and robbed by a gang of twenty teens while on a MARTA train Ya know, there are just too many of these incidents to list.  Google "wilding incidence" yourself.  There are accounts of THOUSANDS of these happenings.  I'll give you a head start - here's a blog written by a cop in Chicago - he's been at it for six years.  tp://www.secondcitycop.blogspot.com/  I am at a loss when it comes to placing blame.  Ya know, if I were in the situation of being unable to feed my family after trying every means available to me, I'd probably be third or fourth through the smashed window.  I've come really close to that situation and it was only luck that saved me from lawless action.  It's easy to claim the teens engaging in these acts of lawlessness are merely hoodlums.  Just lazy hoods who want nothing more than easy money.  And, the person claiming that is probably right.  BUT,  it's not gonna be much longer before the 16 or 20 percent of the newly unemployed will start to join ranks with them.  Are these folks, who have worked all their lives, to be considered criminals because they want to eat?  The middle class has been gutted, the lower class is now starving, and we all see the bankers giving themselves multimillion dollar bonuses.  You do the math.  All that is left to the economically lower fifth of the population is just what they can take from someone else with their own hands.  The younger members of this economic group are smarter than their parents who used to steal from each other.  The kids, more often than not, are stealing from higher income areas.  And, they're smart enough to realize people in middle class homes are not in much better shape than they are.  They're starting to hit the wealthy areas. I've used this quote in an earlier post, but it's become one of my favorites and fits here really well.  John Steinbeck was talking about the disparity between the wealthy and the poor in his masterpiece, "The Grapes of Wrath."  He had already pointed out how the poor had lost all they had, stolen from them by persons of wealth and power.  It was a warning, back in the 30's, to that economic class to be careful.  It applies today as well. “And the great owners, who must lose their land in an upheaval, the great owners with access to history, with eyes to read history and to know the great fact: when property accumulates in too few hands it is taken away. And that companion fact: when a majority of the people are hungry and cold they will take by force what they need. And the little screaming fact that sounds through all history: repression works only to strengthen and knit the repressed.”  John Steinbeck We are now a country at war.  It's not a race war, it's a class war.  The starving are banding together to take what they need to survive.  Most of it is not being reported in the news, and what is getting air time is being treated as an aberration, not another battle in a nationwide urban war.  Again, the mainstream news media is letting us down.  The reporters must know what is going on, I guess they have been told not to tell us.   We're at war, alright, and it's gonna be out of the urban cities and on our doorsteps soon enough.  There are not enough cops in any town in this nation to subdue masses of hungry people, and all the charitable networks in the world will not placate people without hope.  We're gonna have to take care of ourselves.  I guess that means shooting the takers.  I hope I'm man enough to share with the hungry.