by Gila Hayes
We suffered a big loss in mid-October when Ed Lovette passed away. I was so very fortunate to meet Ed in person at a writers’ event at Sig Sauer Academy many years ago. Although a regular reader of his columns in Combat Handguns, that was the only time I was in his presence, but Ed stayed in touch and we corresponded occasionally and spoke by phone now and again.
In addition to his thought-provoking columns in Combat Handguns magazine (back when glossy magazines were delivered each month in the mail), Ed co-authored an excellent personal safety book, Defensive Living, with Dave Spaulding. Ed is best remembered for his book The Snubby Revolver, first released in 2002, which he updated significantly in 2007 and again 2021. A retired CIA paramilitary operations officer, Ed understood that his career was a great training grounds for the mission of teaching private citizens how to go armed and be prepared for self defense because of the “invisible,” covert nature of the CIA officers’ on-duty time. He was particularly focused on extreme close quarters defenses, although, in my opinion, his coaching on threat detection and avoidance, as well as mental preparation, was unparalleled and should have received much more acclaim. I experienced Ed as a quiet, reserved man who would speak out with authority about what he knew but he was never one to seek the spotlight.
Our community is the poorer for his passing. Fortunately, Ed left a great collection of knowledge behind in his books. In the spring of 2019, he generously gave me a long interview we entitled Beneath the Radar. I would love it if members honored his memory by reading and putting into practice the key principles he shared about not attracting and how to deflect a predators’ interest at https://armedcitizensnetwork.org/beneath-the-radar .
Be A Better Citizen
There are only a few days left before what I have come to believe is the most important presidential election in my 60-something years on the planet.
My home state mainly votes by mail. Suspicious soul that I am, most years I wait until a day before the deadline to fill out my ballot and put it in the drop box or mail it back. I am only half-joking when I quip that I wait until right up to election day before voting in case a horribly disqualifying or disgusting detail emerges about a candidate at the last minute that would make me change my vote.
I’m changing procedures this year and filling in my ballot a little early. I took my ballot to the county auditor’s office in person this year, out of concern it might be lost in the mail or maliciously destroyed in a ballot drop box. In our end of the county, the ballot drop box is in a far corner of the elementary school parking lot and frankly, it is extremely vulnerable to damage. Likely I am being silly and nothing malign will happen to ballots left there, but to me, the risk isn’t worth the convenience of stopping by the school parking lot after work and sliding my ballot envelope through the slot.
I have strong opinions about candidates in a number of the races in this election; you likely do, too. I’m not going to try to change your mind. One characteristic of my parents’ generation that mine has somehow lost is knowing how to respect opposing opinions. I’m trying to do better. What I will ask of you, though, is please, members, do your civic duty and cast your ballot.
Civics!
Could you pass the citizenship test required of new immigrants? There are several sets of 20 practice questions that are fun to go through at https://www.uscis.gov/citizenship/civics-practice-test-2008 .
For several years, the U.S Citizenship and Immigration Services has been promising a selection of updated test questions, but the 2008 version isn’t bad, really. I wonder how many high schoolers could pass the test? For that matter, how many of our acquaintances and business associates could? I wondered if I could get 100% on a practice test. I missed perfect scores by one question about half the times when I ran through several iterations of different online quizzes, but then I’m so old that I actually got graded on civics classes when I was in school.
Check out the practice test for yourself. It is kind of fun to see how much you know and equally useful to learn if gaps in your knowledge exist. Some sample questions are pretty easy, and while we might wish we didn’t know their names, we generally know who is president, vice president, our state senators or the name of the Chief Justice of the United States. I was less certain when asked to pick the name of the president who served during World War I. Had the test been fill in the blank, I probably would have failed that question. The four choices included three presidents from what was clearly the wrong time period, so “multiple guess” saved me from not knowing my American history as well as I should. I also was a little unsure about the century in which we fought the Mexican-American war, so once again, I’m seeing that I need a good book or two on American history.
Questions are Good
In closing, let me share some words to live by that I recently saw in a member’s sig block: “I would rather have questions that can’t be answered than answers that can’t be questioned.” --Richard Feynman