Women’s safety is a topic we all care about. But what does it mean? And how does it look and how is it achieved? It seems we really are becoming two Americas.

In Northern California it means this

This week a 55-foot tall statue of a nude woman stirred controversy after it was unveiled in the San Francisco area.

Why is there a statue of a naked dancer? Well the left has this thing about very overt messages.

The 13,000-pound statue has a message written in 10 languages saying, “What would the world be like if women were safe?”

Um what in the world does a statue of a naked dancer have to do with women being safe? Does that mean safe from domestic violence from a spouse or partner? Or from a random passing criminal? But the sculptor explains more of their interesting logic

“She feels safe and she is loving herself in that moment, and hopefully people can feel that feeling,” the sculptor said of the statue, adding, “It’s a beautiful woman, and part of it is to draw men in. Then they look down and see the message and they go, ‘Ohhhh.’ I hope that happens thousands of times.”

So, in liberal America, of which Northern California is the epitome, men only respond to porn and loving oneself is about sex? In this reality, safe is a concept with no connection to icky things like domestic violence but it is about getting naked wherever and whenever you want to girls. And no icky guns either because heaven forbid women learn to protect themselves. But they can learn to pee or puke on their rapist. At least in Colorado’s academic utopia. And of course, no guns or any real self-defense methods that actually work are allowed or even taught. In this America, stringent gun laws are written to keep people safe in places like Chicago…. oh wait, that is one of the murder capitals…. oops.

Safety

Safety in my America aka flyover country, is quite different. It literally means things like knowing your neighbors and physical safety and being aware of your surroundings and learning to not be a victim. How does that work? In my world, it means things like this NRA program described as follows:

The single most important step toward ensuring your own safety is having a personal safety strategy in place before you need it. NRA’s Refuse To Be A Victim® program teaches the tips and techniques you need to be alerted to dangerous situations and to avoid becoming a victim. Seminars are held across the nation and are open to men and women of all ages. Today, hundreds of federal, state and local law enforcement officials from across the nation utilize this popular program in their crime prevention and community policing initiatives. Corporations, educational institutions and community centers have also adopted the program. All told, more than 100,000 people have benefited from these seminars.

Yes, those mean gun people do this. The NRA offers online and classroom training and buying the evil guns and carrying them concealed involves background checks and training in classroom and on the range. Gee that is awful, right? There are even LGBT days at the range.  But this is not about guns.  It is about people being responsible and being a community.   And it often looks like this:

Four teenagers and a police department did that.  They worked together to address police brutality and black lives in a respectful and useful way.  I kind of prefer this to multilingual fifty five foot statues.  Because a community where we come together is safe for women.