You're on the run

[Patricia Abbott]

from the government/organized crime/a foreign power/your ex. Where do you go, what do you do for a living, what name do you take.? Do you have the necessary survival skills to make it? Who do you take along?
You have $5000 in your pocket, but you need a new ID.
No, I am not stealing your great ideas. This again relates to an academic article on sixties radicals on the run, but need not be relevant to that particular experience. Are you any more inventive than they were? Will you end up serving a long sentence for the cop who died in your explosion/ for the innocent bystander dead on the street. Return with us now to the thrilling days of yesteryear. Or last year. Or yesterday. What would you do? Where would you go?

[Patricia Abbott]

I think my kids are down there right now demanding pizza and Diet Coke.

[Steven Torres]

If I were running from the government, I'd think there were only two options: live off the grid - hide out in Maine or North Dakota - someplace where I might be able to live off the land and have access to the Canadian border. I have no "live off the land" skills so that leaves me with plan B. Find a country with no extradition treaty with the USA and lay low there.

Of course, I don't know which countries those are, so my best bet might be to turn myself in...

[Patricia Abbott]

I know that would be my best option. I can't even decide on a new name.

[David Skibbins]

My hero, Warren Ritter, was a Weather Underground member and faced this problem. In those days it was a lot easier to get a fake ID, just find someone who looked like you who had died, and take over their social security. These days the first thing I'd do is to get my local independent bookseller to get me a copy of J J Luna's book, How to Be Invisible. It is the best guide for this scenario.

[M.G. Tarquini]

I'd head to South Phoenix for the new ID. Could probably get one for a thousand bucks or so, social security card and everything. I'd work at Burger King, flop with a bunch of other people in an apartment with 15 people until I could afford to rent my own place.

I'd call myself Ethel Mertz.

[DADavenport]

I'd tell you, but then I'd have to kill you.

[Kevin Burton Smith]

I'd slip across the border and move to Palmdale and try very hard to learn to pronounce "out" the American way.

Damn. So far it's not working.

Seriously though, the Canadian/American border is a great curtain to hide behind.

[Patricia Abbott]

Yes, Detroit stikes me as a good choice, a large city right on the border.

[Libby Hellmann]

There is -- or used to be -- an abandoned mining town not far from Aspen (or is it Boulder) called Lanedo. I stayed there in the '60s with a bunch of other
self-proclaimed radicals. It was supposed to be a commune, but in
reality it was a crash pad with nothing but peanut butter and
marshmallow fluff to eat. I havent heard a thing about it since, and
Google doesnt have much on it either... so, tell me...
is it possible for an entire town to fly under the radar?

[Charles A. King]

Well,
From the gov't: Ours? No way I'm getting online again. Cell phone is gone too, actually any phone.(Anyone see Enemy of the State recently-- it still is pretty revelant) ... ID's not a problem, but would probably take a bit of my 5k. And everything is cash and carry. Then it's South America for a number of years-- maybe the rest of them. And I'd travel alone. Much faster that way. (Although, a major chink in our gov't's armor appears to be cave dwelling, which I could get into if there was cable.) ... Organize Crime? I'd kill them. I'd kill them all. ... A foreign power? You got to be kidding. I'm an American. If anyone is running from anyone, they're running from me. If they know what's good for them.

[Patricia Abbott]

I bet you write for 24.

[norby]

I think the biggest problem people on the run or in hiding have is a.) remembering the lies (backstory) and b.) leaving behind friends and family.

I'd like to think that I could disappear and just start up another life somewhere, but I'd probably get caught in no time. Today's technology, you would have to immerse yourself somewhere without it, or, as someone mentioned, spend enough cash to create an identity strong enough to stand up to the scrutiny. John List was safe until the story of his crimes was televised nationally and his neighbors and friends recognized him. Which brings up another point-are you prepared to go to the drastic step of altering your appearance?

Back in the day, it would have been easier, sure, a lot of people did do it. But now, I don't know.