Page 110 - The Lost Ways

❖ Safety in numbers. A group of people working together can achieve a lot more
than the same number all doing their own thing—and that applies to security too.
❖ Better awareness. Being organized means sharing information, and that means
everyone gets advanced warning of any developing problems.

❖ Less time-consuming. If every home is 100% responsible for its own security,
everyone will spend a lot of time checking for intruders and standing guard. That
wastes time people could use producing food and adapting to the crisis.
❖ Safety for singles. Families can take turns checking perimeters at night or standing
guard when marauders are around. Anyone living alone can’t do that. If there are
older people in your area, they’re vulnerable too—and local safety is only as
strong as the weakest link.

When you show people that you’ve thought about keeping the area safe from
lawbreakers and you have a plan to do it, most of them are going to agree. You’re not
trying to take over; you just have some positive suggestions to save everyone some time
and gain them some security. What you’ll probably find is that your friends and neighbors
have been worrying about exactly those issues.

Most of us think we can protect our homes by ourselves—and most of the time we can—
but when a dozen armed and desperate people could raid our food supplies at any time,

we start to realize that we need to sleep sometime, and that leaves a lot of hours when
we’re not ready to respond. Ask anyone who’s done time in the military how exhausting
sentry duty gets.

Once the majority of your neighbors have accepted your plan, you’re ready to get started.
Without announcing it, you’ve basically got yourself elected as sheriff. Don’t get carried
away, but now you need to start putting the plan into effect—and that means you’re
going to need deputies.

This looks like the tricky bit; you have to persuade people to give up some of their time
to help you out. Actually, it’s not that hard, though, because they’ll see the benefits pretty
quickly. In exchange for taking turns at patrolling the area, they’ll be able to sleep soundly
every other night, knowing that someone’s out there keeping an eye on things and ready
to raise the alarm if necessary.

Showing the Flag

One of the most important things you can do is have a visible presence around the clock.
That’s one of the main reasons an old-time sheriff would take on deputies. Many crimes

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