Posted by: Democratic Thinker | July 21, 2010
Pileus—A Word of Thanks to Four Black Men and A Gun
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Commentary
Marcus Cole, July 15, 2010, offers a commentary over at Pileus on the importance of self-reliance. See: A Word of Thanks to Four Black Men and A Gun.
A Word of Thanks to Four Black Men and A Gun
July 15, 2010 by Marcus Cole
The most important of these men, to me, was my father. When I was a boy, he and my mother moved our family of six from the Terrace Village public housing projects in Pittsburgh’s Hill District to a predominantly white neighborhood. While many of our neighbors welcomed us, we were not welcomed by all. I recall a brick through the front window, and other incidents. But burned into my memory is the Sunday evening when my father was beaten with a tire iron on the street in front of our home, and in front of us, his four little children. Those three young white men were never caught.
When my father, with his surgically reconstructed eye socket and jaw, was released from the hospital, he did something he never once considered when we lived in the projects. He bought a gun.
Every evening after that, before going to bed, I and my siblings would go out onto the front porch to say goodnight to my father as he sat in his chair, shotgun across his lap, with its black barrel glistening under the porch light. I never once felt unsafe. I never once had trouble sleeping. My sense of security did not come from the Pittsburgh Police, or from the law. My sense of security came from my father, and his gun.
(Read complete article at original site)
A tip o’ the hat to The Volokh Conspiracy.
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Posted in American Debate, Commentary, Second Amendment, Self Defense, Self-Reliance | Tags: McDonald v City of Chicago, Pileus