Growing up I had a few lessons pounded into me by my father; Don’t race a snow storm, Do love/ fear your wife, Don’t be a follower, Do buy “good” jewelry, and lastly Don’t leave the house without your wallet, socks, belt, hanky, and knife. It was the 80’s so thanks to Don Johnson (sp?) and the rest of the Miami Vice cast, a belt and socks were not always a given, but oddly pastels were. I really don’t know how the teachers were able to work in a class room where men didn’t were socks with leather shoes…..the smell must have been bad.
Today thanks to my expanding waist, a belt is a requirement, and shoes just feel better with socks. A wallet is second nature for most adults. The hanky is very useful but gone are the days of offering it to a damsel in distress. Remember people you wash them after using and don’t offer them after they are used….none the less my wife will not accept one from me. Carrying a knife has gone from a social and parental imperative, to an act of terror. Now in the morning I have to plan out where I’m going and determine if a knife is “ok.” Let’s pars this out.
First of all I’m not talking “Crocodile Dundee” knife, I’m talking Swiss army knife or similar. Where would McGeiver be in today’s world if that good old Swiss he carried was confiscated in a governmental building? More importantly how could he travel the world and thwart the bad guys if the knife was stolen from his checked luggage?
Second, these knives are not illegal. Walk into Wal-Mart or Target and you can buy one (in PA you can do that for a shotgun too, but that’s another story)
Third, a knife is maybe the simplest and most useful tool you can carry, and a small Leatherman or Swiss knife can be so useful. It always amazes me that we have “apps for that” and try to build functionality into our gadgets, but at the same time make the first “super gadget” the Swiss knife a villainous tool of treachery. Good luck using your Apple phone to fix those glasses, cut that fruit, or remove that cork, even after you used the app.
Fourth, once people know you carry a knife regularly they want to borrow it, most don’t carry their own but like to have one accessible.
Fifth, a news article never written. “Youth uses Swiss army knife to rob bank” or “mass causality event due to Swiss army knife rampage”
We could go on here. I think it’s a shame that we are allowing a few extremist folks who do bad things to alter our daily lives so drastically. I have given my son a Swiss knife, but it lives in my dresser where he has to ask for it. It kills me to do this. I carried my knife to school, gave it to teachers who needed it….wore it on the outside of my scout uniform. If my son did the same he would be expelled. Not expelled because he threatened someone with it, or carved his name into a desk. Just for the possession of it.
We are living in a world where teaching kids to me prepared and self reliant doesn’t mean using your Swiss knife to fix the broken zipper, but using your cell phone to look up the app or calling mom. What happens when the batteries die? Who is more dangerous, a kids with a pocket knife he can use or a kid who can hack into someone’s Face book account?
Bad guys will still be there, shit will happen, technology will allow guns to go through metal detectors, and bombs will blow stuff up. All of those are bad terrible things. But they will happen. When it does, who will be more useful to have around, the person with the useless cell phone, or the guy with a Swiss knife and some sense how to get stuff done? Give me a call if you ever see Bear Grills pull out a cell phone.
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