I’ve lived in a couple third-world pestholes before. Sarajevo & Zenica, Bosnia-Hercegovina – 1996; Rustimyah & Baghdad, Iraq – 2003 & 2006-2008; Kabul & Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan — 2009; all come to mind. I’ve lived in former authoritarian dictatorships (communist and otherwise) before. Baghdad (see above), Skopje & Veles Macedonia – 1998; Kyiv & L’viv, Ukraine – 2002 and 2009-2014 all come to mind.

What made a pesthole a pesthole?

Ignorance of the law. Check.

Absence of law. Check.

Refusal or inability to prosecute violators of the law. Check.

Broken windows. Check.

Increasingly rampant, increasingly violent crime. Check.

A corrupt judiciary system (numbers of cops, lawyers, and judges on the take in one form or another). Check.

An economic system based on bribes, kickbacks, and who-do-you-know. System often affected by artificial “shortages”. Check.

A preponderance of formal mobs (mafia), formal gangs of disadvantaged youth, informal neighborhood small gangs out of self-defense. Check.

Declining or decrepit infrastructure. Check.

Overburdened health care services. Check. (Trust me. You NEVER want to go to a state hospital in a socialist or democratic socialist county. Ask me about my surgical stay in such a hospital in Germany. Never mind state hospitals in Ukraine or Macedonia.)

Inept or missing education systems. Check

Heavy narcotic or opioid legal or illegal drug use. Check.

State and municipal leaders who only give time to those who pay-to-play. Check.

No true respect for elders, authority, competent educators, community service members (EMS, law enforcement, military). Check.

Little or no national identity, patriotism. Check

I could go on, but you get the idea.

The current political divide in our country has morphed into something more dangerous. Look at that list of pestholes again. It becomes obvious that that divide is creating or worsening things here right in our own country. I could provide local or national examples of every one of those checks right here in the United States and often, right here in Texas. However, I’ll bet money that each of you could do the same thing.

Worse, we can start to list examples of abuses of power by politicians and top level executives of government agencies either abusing power, abdicating responsibilities, and creating division and chaos in everything from absolving criminal acts by people like Hillary Clinton, to corrupt g the education content and process in our public education system with so-called “woke” ideology. Or infiltrating blatant pornography into the school libraries and curriculum.   

So, (I hate people who begin sentences with “So, . . .”. Let me begin again.) What to do? If you are reading this, you are probably already involved. Heh! Let me quote the rules of a gunfight.

1. Bring a gun.

2. Bring friends with guns.

Instead of guns, we need to bring 1. Knowledge. And

2. Friends with knowledge and influence.

Who is in?