By Angry Old American, Copyright March 16^th, 2020. All Rights Reserved.

CAUTION: This letter contains offensive language directed toward our State Government and more than a few local knuckleheads. Angry Old American is a self-described unrepentant Hater who eschews Political Correctness. By continuing to subject your frail and sensitive eyes and mind to these materials you agree not to hunt down, torture and kill Angry Old American or sue the Publisher.

DANGER! Turn back while you still can.

Our brave emergency responders will be spread thin as the Pandemic progresses and our medical system becomes increasingly overburdened. Don’t rely on Sacramento to take care of you. Del Norte County is far down the priority list when compared to Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco.

In the State of California, we have watched the same scenario repeated time and again. To appear as good stewards of public resources they make cuts to funding and manpower. However, they always cut the muscle; and never the fat.

Emergency personnel are underpaid, overworked and placed in mortal danger. At the same time, pet social programs that benefit a handful of pork-barrel crony corporate pals are left fat, dumb and happy.

When our first line of defense breaks due to underfunding and lack of staff, then lives are lost. Loss of life gets public attention. The public are justifiably outraged and vote more money to fix the problem.

In response to the influx of new money, the State hires a few new part-time employees and forces expensive full-time experienced staff into retirement. They make a banal gesture of buying new vehicles from one of their crony contractors, and the excess additional funding voted for emergency response goes to the fat, dumb and happy pork barrel projects that they were supporting all along. That is our Socialist system in California.

We must all have compassion for our local law enforcement officers. If their agencies are too cheap to provide them with non-contact thermometers then they should buy their own. For the price of a good flashlight they can check a person for elevated temperature from twelve feet away. Perhaps a few of us in the community can chip in to help them get them. Don’t give the money to our government leaders because “You Know Who” will get the money. Health checks will become routine procedures for law enforcement as the Pandemic spreads. When they once again become available, our law enforcement officers should be issued full respirators with polycarbonate face shields capable of absorbing blunt force and low velocity projectiles. Infected criminals may use their disease as a weapon against our police and community at large. Safeguarding the health of our first responders should be priority one.

Expect criminal activity to hit new heights. Join a neighborhood watch group. Keep an eye on the welfare of your neighbors. Most folks carry a cell phone capable of recording video. Collect video evidence if you suspect foul play. A crook casing a neighborhood is less likely to commit a crime if he or she knows you have recorded their license plate and have taken their photo. I’ve done it before. A stranger kept cruising our block and appraising the houses, yards and cars. After I walked to the curb with a camera and made it known I was recording, the stranger left the area and never came back. He was annoyed, cursed me and flipped me off, but who cares?  I don’t want a thief to think I’m his good-buddy. There’s an old phrase about a thief taking anything that isn’t nailed down. In Del Norte County they take it nails and all.

Expect emergency response times to lengthen as personnel get stretched to the breaking point. Expect to hear of the National Guard being activated in large cities. Have a degree of empathy for our local Police and Sheriff’s Deputies. They will be overworked and underpaid as always, leaving their families for long hours while they serve the community. Help their families cope with the additional stress. Share excess from your garden, offer assistance and let them know you care.

Be prepared to defend yourself and your family. Drug addicts never take a day off from their chosen occupations and will not respect quarantines or curfews. The nature of a psychopath or sociopath is to live their lives for self-gratification. They take no thought about the suffering of others. They will risk life and limb to get valuables for trade to feed their habit. Prepare an emergency security and self-defense plan for your family. Learn from those who already belong to neighborhood watch groups.

If you have not already done so, prepare to care for medical emergencies in the home. Learn first aid off the internet during a lay-off or self-isolation. Take an online EMT course instead of watching brain-dead TV programs. Buy a book on Disaster Medicine so you have alternatives to medications and supplies that will become scarce. Even better would be to form a mutual assistance agreement with neighbors. You might even be graced by having an EMT, nurse or doctor nearby. However, these folks will most likely have their hands full answering calls and caring for the sick and dying.

As a side note, Medical Professionals and advanced students would do themselves a service by reviewing the MedCram educational series about the Coronavirus online. The doctor presenting the series is a pulmonary specialist and well versed in viral microbiology. So far two strains have been identified. The “S” Strain is the milder of the two, and the “L” Strain has begun killing younger victims. We can expect more regional strains to emerge with different symptoms as the Coronavirus continues to mutate. There also seems to be a link between Advil (Ibuprofen) use for fever and acceleration of the disease’s progress.

Members of our community will be better off avoiding an overburdened medical system. If we can care for ourselves, we are best to do so. Prepare to treat yourself if stricken by the flu. Get a stethoscope, blood pressure cuff and thermometer and learn how to use them. Put ice packs in the freezer so you have them ready to lower your temperature when hit by extreme fever. Have off-the-shelf medications or herbal remedies handy. A pulse oximeter can be had for less than twenty dollars and will tell you when your blood oxygen level requires emergency medical assistance.

Remember that fire season is close at hand. As our emergency responders are stretched thin we should be prepared to battle our own fires, or to evacuate. An emergency smoke hood respirator, nomex coveralls and extrication gloves can be had for under $200, assuming you can still get them online. Learn the basics of fire science. Smoke inhalation will be your biggest threat while protecting your home and family from fire. At least have a plan in place for instances when fire personnel are stretched to their limits. We saw how many Australians did just that in recent months.

There might be wholesale fire terrorism like Australia has just experienced. The entire country was ablaze from arson fires. America has domestic enemies and terrorist sleeper cells that would not think twice about kicking our teeth in while we are down. You can form a local neighborhood fire-brigade to provide mutual assistance for your own homes when conventional fire crews are unavailable. I can only hope that our local officials ban the sale and use of fireworks til the Pandemic has run its course. This is no time to maintain risky behaviors because of sentiment.

Expect brownouts and blackouts brought about by opportunistic criminals to operate in darkness and shut down alarms and video surveillance cameras. During sustained electricity outages, you can power-up rechargeable AA batteries in most inexpensive solar-powered lawn lanterns. Be prepared to secure these lawn lanterns from theft as they will become increasingly scarce.

If you get your hands on a sack of potatoes, consider planting them instead of eating them. That one sack of potatoes can be multiplied many times over. It’ll be the best investment you can make for your family’s future. Grow a home garden and learn how to save your own seeds. It will be critical for gardeners to build a large and varied local stock of heirloom seeds. Always let your strongest plants grow to full maturity and seed. Only a fool eats his own seed stock. Collecting and storing seeds is a science worth learning. Together, our gardening clubs and local growers can keep Del Norte County alive. We all need to WORK together. The old Mooch paradigm is coming to an end, and those who do not adapt will end with it.

God bless the Republic, what’s left of it.

It is time to wake up!

Respectfully,

Angry Old American