SurvivalRing

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Welcome to the SurvivalRing – Exactly What Is Survival?

By Richard A. Fleetwood – May 2001

SurvivalRing started in 1997 with the simple goal of connecting like-minded websites to help people find data on areas they were concerned with. At the time, the WEBRING concept was fairly new and a simple, easy, and useful way to solve that problem. In just a few months, over 200 preparedness and survival sites had joined and were part of SurvivalRing. Then, Y2k loomed on the horizon, and brought to the honest to God forefront REAL need to prepare for possible problems that Y2k might bring to the world. Thanks to $300 billion spent worldwide, massive infrastructure problems were avoided, and millions upon millions of programmers rewrote code on legacy systems to save data that would have crushed even Fortune 500 companies had it been lost.

Now, after the turn of the REAL millennium, 010101, all can see that we were indeed fortunate. Yes, there were problems. The US spy agencies lost satellite data and control because of program bugs, petroleum production plants in countries all over the world lost plants, systems, and more with embedded chip problems, and even a handful of power plants suspiciously were destroyed with some kind of relation to testing, upgrading, and preparation for the Y2K turnover of the clock.

Now think of the Non-Y2k disasters the world suffered during the very same time frame. Horrible earthquakes, massive flooding from storm systems worldwide, the worst drought in history in the southeast centered around Mississippi and Alabama, killer tornadoes in 1998 and 1999, including incredible damage and destruction from several F5 tornadoes in Alabama and Oklahoma. Hurricanes wrought destruction on the East Coast, ice storms came and went, and every other natural calamity that could happen and has happened historically, happened again…and again.

This brings us to a very important question. One that every human being with any family, old or young, should ask themselves early in their adulthood. What is the most important thing that any person can do to succeed in life…any life, any vocation, any place or time?

Prepare. Prepare for life and the lengthening of it by any and all means possible, from learning what threats may come from nature, from man, or from technology.

Farmers plant seeds because they know if they don’t, they won’t have produce to sell to feed their families and livestock.

Miners take raw material from the earth and ship it to myriad plants worldwide to produce materials, which can further be used and refined to make the finished products that fill our store shelves locally.

Factories stock materials for their production so they won’t have to shut down assembly for the lack of a single item.

Energy production companies store fuel, repair parts, and needed manpower for when part of their grids go down, break, or get destroyed by nature. Educators get the skills and knowledge needed to help teach the next generations of workers in every field of endeavor. Basically, ALL these different and very unique fields MUST prepare for what HAS to happen to keep the circle of life going, as well as what MIGHT happen that can’t be foreseen.

Most times, it works out. Sometimes, when really big disasters occur, assistance from OUTSIDE resources help any particular locales recover and return to previous production as soon as possible.

Communication in all areas is essential to continue the flow of life, goods, services, and lifestyles.

In the US, the Federal government has the Federal Emergency Management Agency (previously several civil agencies that were combined in the 1980’s, including the Department of Civil Defense). When any local large disaster occurs, FEMA usually has attendance afterwards and assists with recovery funds, manpower, and grants. FEMA, while a very important part of overall government planning, is not perfect, and being a large top-heavy organization, it takes a bit of time to get rolling full steam ahead to problem areas. In Florida when Hurricane Andrew hit, there were thousands of homes destroyed, and people sat in the yards of their damaged houses…waiting for “government help” to show up, and some waited for a few days to actually talk to a FEMA rep about their particular help needs.

These same folks, and people like them worldwide, could have been well on the way to recovery immediately after the storm if they had REALLY prepared for any “possible” hurricane that would come their way someday. Stored food and water, plywood and glass for windows, tarps and nails and 2×4’s stowed in the garage would have allowed for instant mitigation of damage so costs were lessened and further damage minimized.

Tools, skills, knowledge, and planning will ALWAYS make the difference on what the final TOLL will be when the last bills come in. Very possibly, enough forethought and planning, building and designing, and REAL hard work will keep ANY damage from happening, ANY injuries from occurring, and ANY lost time and revenue from taking away from your lifestyle.

Ultimately, the final goal of SurvivalRing is to offer you a portal, leading you into a wide range of fields, areas, ideas, suggestions, and so forth that you might pick and choose from to prioritize and create your VERY OWN “Plan For The Future”.

Links to hundreds of websites, articles on many subjects regarding all areas of preparedness, historical archives of United States and Canadian Civil Defense Documents (both nuclear and natural disaster preparedness, some going back 55 years), newsgroups, messages bases, email lists, a chat room, and much more are all here to get you started. Maybe you have a particular reason for wanting to prepare for a particular threat that is close to your heart. Can’t find specifics? ASK US. Many members of the SurvivalRing Webring are experts in their particular field. Others have surely BEEN THRU what you fear might threaten your family and can offer guidance and pointers in planning.

No question is too stupid, unless you already know the answer and want to pull someone’s chain. Then, there are plenty of folks to share their “opinions” on anything you can dream up.

Some folks consider SURVIVAL to be a dirty word. Many liberal and supposedly authoritative groups and well known activists in Anti-Hate areas consider the term “Survivalist” to equate with hateful, destructive, anti-government, supremacist, and/or other BAD THINGS. You may even do a search RIGHT THIS MINUTE on any large search engine for “SurvivalRing” and in the hundreds of hits that show up, towards the end of the search results you will find these same Anti-Hate groups stating that SurvivalRing is about hate and other ill-mannered goals. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Life is precious…ALL life.

Survival is the art of SUCCESSFULLY living, thru all trial and tribulation, in any given day, week, month, or year. Bad things happen to good people, and SurvivalRing is about dealing with those bad things to make good…. you know, lemons to lemonade. Those that would tell you otherwise are the REAL bad guys. Those groups like the Pro-Choice coalitions, Zero Population growth groups, and any other groups that think extinguishing ANY human life unnaturally is acceptable if rationalized loud and long enough, until enough individuals believe it, are the ones YOU should truly avoid, and should fight against.

Regardless of what those naysayers will have to say about SurvivalRing, believe the fact that it exists ONLY to help those who want to help themselves…to BE PREPARED. Use SurvivalRing to get started on YOUR preparedness projects, and maybe even share with the rest of the world those things that YOU have had to learn the hard way.

Again, welcome to SurvivalRing…YOUR place to prepare for ANY future.

Richard Fleetwood
Founder – SurvivalRing
May 2001