John in Condition Yellow: A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

Saturday, August 1, 2009

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

Unless you've been living in a cave in Afghanistan, you probably know that President Obama hosted a beer bash with black Harvard law professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Cambridge Massachusetts police officer Sgt. James Crowley, who arrested Gates. All three are seen here, presumably on their way to knock back a few cold ones. I wondered if this photo might have been photoshopped but it appears on the White House blog, so I'm assuming it's genuine.

I could ramble on about my interpretation of body language, but really, once you look at the photo you either get it or you don't.

No comments:

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

What is Condition Yellow and why should we care?

What is Condition Yellow?

Jeff Cooper formulated the four parts of the code of awareness: White, Yellow, Orange, and Red.

In Condition White, you are completely oblivious of your surroundings as you would be, for example, if you are asleep.

Condition Yellow is the level of awareness that you should be in the entire time that you are awake and going about your business. Like an airplane or a ship, your radar is running 360 degrees, looking for a blip that may possibly be a threat to you. When your radar picks up a blip, you go into Condition Orange.

In Condition Orange you focus on the possible threat and analyze it to see if it may become a real threat. Once you’ve analyzed it, you either dismiss it as not a threat and return to Condition Yellow, or you take a course of action--Condition Red--to survive the threat.

In Condition Red you fight or run. Doing nothing is rarely an option.

I believe that to live one’s life in Condition Yellow is the best way to avoid or deal with threats whether they be physical, political, or whatever. The person who gets mugged and then says, “He came out of nowhere; There was nothing I could do”, is walking around in Condition White when he should be in Condition Yellow. On This blogsite I intend to examine those things that may threaten the promise that America holds for us all: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.