Nobody wrote that there was anything wrong with self defense, or that this story had anything to do with strawberries. What they wrote was that coming to rectify a cause of a problem in a specific case before any cause was identified displays a disconnect between the case at hand and the agenda. You connected that statement to your position of the need for self defense and assumed it to be saying that the whole thing was a joke and self defense is useless and wrong; the same way you connected this terrifying story of two missing girls to a need for self defense to be taught. You could be 100% correct, but it happened to have nothing to do with the story in this case. That's all that was pointed out.
First off, as stated I have known both families involved for possibly 20 years, when your family whatsapp group is going bonkers till 4am with sisters freaking out (my sisters are all very close with these families as are my brothers etc)
Sure it was the wrong issue but the thing that comes to mind when 2 16 year olds disappear is that God forbid it could have been something like abduction or assault
Perhaps I was raised different ? I dont see dragons everywhere, I thought living in Gush Katif was normal LOL and I hadthese rockets crashing down daily.
Fear causes us to act / react, in this case fear of girls being abducted pressed me to raise a point that we should address self defense.
The argument regarding historically safe times is correct and incorrect, we are often lulled in to a sense of safety that is quickly shattered.
Why should I have an agenda ? So I worry, im not saying we should schlep teenage girls in to classes and scare the bejeekers out of them.
A few points of thought though:
Do you think lost girls would be less scared with basic self defense tools ?
I all too often hear a woman say she wont go to such and such place etc or alone at night etc NOT saying this is universal, just that I encounter it.
Are females not a bigger predatory target ?
Do you think at the time of the girls being lost, other girls etc were scared and may have been re-assured by possessing some basic self defense tools ?
And finally, do you think the family or any family with missing kids might posses a little comfort if they know their kids have a basic ability of self defense ?
It can be part of a school curriculum of "Dealing with an unexpected crisis" you can teach em first aid at the same time.
You know when they taught us stuff like this in school and camp we taught it was funny.
Now on the topic of scaring kids, I have a class action lawsuit for you for every CGI for scaring the crap out of me with stories of Shaydim!!!!!!