Getting Out There, By Joe Dolio

authored by my friend Joe Dolio and published to his blog, Tactical Wisdom.

How many times have you heard someone say, “I’d like to meet like-minded people, but I’m worried that everyone is a Fed”? I hear it every week, and to be fair, I begin every class I teach with “For the Fed who is inevitably among us reporting on this class…..”. We’re all a little gun-shy (pun intended) right now of meeting each other face to face and transacting any kind of commerce that could be construed as remotely right-leaning.

That’s entirely BY DESIGN. High-profile arrests, search warrants, and raids, along with what can only be described as harassment and humiliation (stopping people leaving restaurants with family to seize phones with no explanation) are meant to make you wary of organizing in any way.

You know what I think? SCREW THEM. Do it anyway. Let them waste hundreds of man hours listening to us drone on about our kids and our jobs. Let them waste time being bored out of their minds as we engage in Constitutionally protected speech. Just don’t engage people who try to draw you into conversations about illegal matters and YOU WILL BE FINE.

Let’s see what advice the Ultimate Tactical Handbook offers on this:

…not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

Hebrews 10:25

That’s right…when it seems the most dangerous to meet, MEET ANYWAY. Consider the context above. Paul was speaking to the Hebrews who had converted to Christianity. The authorities at the time were hunting them. They were trying to eradicate those rebellious Christians (sound familiar?). Undercover agents had been placed among them. Some had been arrested. Some were killed. They continued to meet. Imagine our world today if they had just given up on this idea called Christianity or “The Way”.

Right after I finished my first book, I was out gathering information inside of the 2020 BLM/ANTIFA riots. I was using gray man tactics and surveillance skills gathered over a 25-year investigations career and posting the information here on the blog. I was soon approached by a local group (yes, the M word) that was seeking some training for some of their people on gray man tactics.

But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. 

“Do not fear their threats; do not be frightened.”

1 Peter 3:14

The first thing I was asked was “aren’t you afraid they’re feds?” and “aren’t you worried about feds inside their group?”. I responded that I was aware of the potential for both, but I wasn’t going to be discussing anything sensitive or unlawful. I was going to teach people how to blend in inside a crowd, how to gather information, and how to use radios to communicate while doing so. I opened both classes I did for them with a blanket statement that I would not be discussing taking any kind of violent action against any specific groups, and that I would not discuss overthrowing anything. It’s that simple. Everything I taught was legal, in fact I warned against taking any kind of illegal action, which would render the information you gathered unusable.

I was then approached by another group and asked to conduct self-defense and weapon retention training. Sure, nothing they couldn’t learn at any martial arts school. I gave the same caveats and held class. Interestingly, when I came back for knife and stick training, a couple of their members didn’t come back (probably the feds).

Then came the big one…NC Scout, a friend and big-name trainer, was coming to Michigan to train people. Now, I was going to be attending a class with folks I had never met, for a full week. Talk about worrying about feds…. Well, the class was fantastic, I learned a lot, and I met a lot of great people who are like-minded.

Now, I’m teaching classes every couple of weekends and doing preparedness evaluations in people’s homes, and not one person has been arrested or raided by the feds.

Here’s the point of today’s chat: Don’t let them win. They want you too afraid to speak against them, but more importantly, too afraid to meet with like-minded folks. Don’t give them what they want by sitting on the couch. Owning all that cool-guy tacti-cool gear won’t help you if you don’t get out and train with it. Take classes. Meet others. Attend picnics and meet-ups. We are not descendants of fearful men.

When was the last time you took a CPR refresher? Now, you take one course in an afternoon and get certified in CPR, infant CPR, and using the AED (Automatic External Defibrillator). Take a community education first aid course. Take a land navigation course – yes, they exist. Take a martial arts class (literally anything but Capoeira).

Organize a camping trip with friends where you decide to go “minimalist”, camping with small tents and minimal gear. Want a real fun experience? Do a winter minimalist camp – I promise it will become a favorite activity. If 12–16-year-old boy scouts can do it, you can too.

Your only training activity can’t be going to the range once a month. You’ll need the other skills more. For example, a class like NC Scout’s Scout class or Recce class focuses more on small unit tactics and undetected movement than shooting skills. Those are more important to your long-term survival than putting holes in paper or everyone’s favorite “room clearing” drills.

Learn how to use the radio to make long-distance contacts and stay in touch with the rest of the world. Join a local HAM or GRMS group and learn an important skill. Maybe even get your license, if you choose to.

Bible studies are a great way to meet like-minded people. Some of my strongest personal friendships right now began in the context of a Bible Study.

To sum this all up, you need other people. Don’t be afraid to go and find them. Don’t let the opposition scare you out of valuable life experiences. Living just to comply and avoid danger isn’t living, it’s slavery. Get out and train with like-minded people.

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.

Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

Galatians 5:1