The day I didn't stand my ground

[Mira]

John Railey
Winston-Salem Journal
May 3, 2014



If John Railey had been carrying his shotgun that day, he might not have made it to his high-school graduation

After the two men knocked me in the river I treaded water, asking the one still standing there what they were going to do.
“My brother’s gone to the truck to get a gun and we’re going to kill you,” he said.
Somewhere in my fear I thought to myself: I picked a hell of a day to leave my shotgun at home.
As America continues to wrestle with questions over Florida’s stand-your-ground law and questions over gun violence in general, I often think of what happened to me that afternoon in April 1978 in my rural Virginia hometown when I was a junior in high school.
I had been getting ready to go fishing on the Nottoway River, leaving from a landing less than a half-mile from my house. I kept my canoe chained at the landing. I stood near the boat, digging some fishing worms.
A young woman barely older than me was leaning on an old pickup truck parked at the landing. She asked me what I was doing. Digging worms, I said. She made some other small talk. I was just trying to get going with the fishing.
I finished up, put the worms in a plastic container and headed for my canoe.

That’s when I saw the two men.
They’d just pulled their boat up. They walked toward me, each lugging heavy oars across their shoulders. They were shirtless, older than me and taller than me. I knew most folks who used that landing but I’d never seen these guys before. One of them said, You were talking to my girlfriend.
She just asked me about digging worms, I said. I’m just trying to go fishing.
The two men weren’t buying it. One of them pushed his long hair out of his eyes. He looked like he’d ingested something that had taken him to a mean and lonely place.
We talked in circles for another minute or so, with both men accusing me of trying to pick up the girl and me denying it.
Then the strange-eyed one just raised his big oar behind him and swung it hard toward me. I’m not real coordinated but he wasn’t real sober, so I somehow had time to reflexively cover my face with my forearms and ease the blow.

for all of it go to:

http://www.journalnow.com/opinion/columnists/john_railey/railey-the-day-i-didn-t-stand-my-ground/article_836c5164-d22a-11e3-867a-0017a43b2370.html

[KT2000]

1. thoughtful essay n/t

[Hoyt]

2. So many of these situations can be handled without a gun, unless you have one and

have trained to kill. Then, you never know how things might have been.

Good link.

[Dalai_1]

3. Kick n/t