January 25th, 2016 I was coming home from dinner with a close friend, his brother, and his brother’s friend. As we were on the freeway, everything seemed normal. Nobody had cut us off, we hadn’t cut anyone else off, everything was going fine. Suddenly, from the rearview mirror, the driver and I could see a car speeding up from behind us. We thought nothing of it, just kept driving. Then, as the car drew nearer and was finally about to pass us on the left-hand side, someone in the back seat said, “Oh, they want to race!”, and my heart dropped to my butt. Something just didn’t seem right, and within a few seconds, my suspicion was confirmed. Before there was time to say anything else, the car had pulled up alongside us and started to roll down the window. I could feel myself saying, “Oh no, no, shit”. The person inside the car seemed to have a bandana on the lower half of his face, he threw up a gang sign, pulled the hammer back on his gun and began firing. My friend driving the car, swerved and pulled off into a ditch. He was already screaming, and I was just trying to calm everyone down. I remember him saying he was shot and me saying, “No, I think we’re okay…” I looked down to see blood coming from my thigh and lower calf and then I reached for my phone to call the police.
Knowing what I do now about PTSD, I understand why it took so long for me to remember a lot of details. When I first got to the hospital, I had a hard time remembering even what the car looked like that had attacked us and I couldn't remember what it felt like being shot. It wasn’t until much later that I got a better understanding of what happened, and I was able to remember the sensation itself after 6 months. For the sake of this post though, I’m going to try to sum it up quickly. Our assailants were caught, although we have yet to hear anything new in over a year about them being tried specifically for our incident. We were shot at by two of the three men in the car 13 shots total, all into the driver’s side door (with a 9mm and a 45mm). The driver of our car was hit three times and I was hit twice, nobody else in our car was injured. The men they caught were all born and raised locally (in cities less than 45 minutes away from my hometown, Tacoma), ages 19, 21, and 23 at the time of the incident. We were one of 5 other incidents that were all seemingly random shootings or attempted robberies. In total, 3 people died because of these young men and many more were seriously injured. It was revealed, when the men were caught, that this was not any sort of gang initiation and there was absolutely no reasoning whatsoever in why our car was targeted. We didn’t flip them off or cut them off on the road before, nothing like that. I feel this is important to note because many people, looking from the outside in, have and will try to write this off as gang activity, road rage, or something similar and it was not. None of the 5 incidents that occurred at the hands of these three men were targeted, planned, or invoked in any way.
When the Washington State Patrol detective came over to sit with my mom and me, to explain what they found when the other car was seized and what would happen next,
We were told that these young men just went around robbing and stealing to make a living. And, while they had been caught, it was the detective’s understanding that they must have been GOOD at robbing and stealing because they could afford a fairly expensive attorney.
This comment has stuck with me since that day and is a big part of what drives me to the blockchain and cryptocurrency industry now.
Is an act of violence ever truly random? It's one thing to hear about a shooting at a school or movie theater and say to yourself, "yeah, the world is going to shit", it is another thing entirely to be a victim in one of these situations. What happened to me has created a desire to see suffering on all sides cease! I am theorizing that those of us involved in the cryptocurrency and blockchain industries have had more severe or a higher frequency of interactions revolving around behavioral economics; And, that more of us have had to deal with the impact current economic systems have on societal interactions and progressions firsthand in relation to the 'average consumer'. Either way, there is no doubt that our society is suffering at the hands of capitalism and fiat currencies.
THIS IS IT. We only get one chance to do this right! We have to stop allowing our industry professionals and organizations to hide away from the tough questions regarding the connection between our society and our economy. I will admit, trying to research the correlation is not easy. However, our industry should die trying, this is what we should be selling. A solution to the most common of problems amongst humans from all corners of the globe; economic inequality, how it changes our view of self, as well as our social interactions. I believe focusing on this, will create the urgency our industry needs right now.
What has happened in your life to make you a cryptocurrency enthusiast?
What problems are you looking to solve through the blockchain/cryptocurrency industry?
