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> On sheep, wolves and sheepdogs--

A Vietnam veteran, an old retired colonel, once said
> this to me: "Most
> of the people in our society are sheep. They are kind,
> gentle, productive
> creatures who can only hurt one another by accident."
> This is true.
> Remember, the murder rate is six per 100,000 per year, and
> the aggravated
> assault rate is four per 1,000 per year. What this means is that the vast majority of Americans are not inclined to hurt one another.

> Some people may be destined to be sheep and others
> might be genetically
> primed to be wolves or sheepdogs. But I believe that most
> people can choose
> which one they want to be. If you have no capacity for violence then you are a healthy productive citizen: a sheep.

If you have a capacity for violence and no empathy for
> your fellow citizens, then you have defined an aggressive
> sociopath, a wolf. But what if you have a capacity for violence, and a deep love for your
> fellow citizens? What do you have then? A sheepdog, a
> warrior, someone who
> is walking the hero's path. Someone who can walk into
> the heart of
> darkness, into the universal human phobia, and walk out
> unscathed.

Here is how the sheep and the sheepdog think differently. The sheep pretend the wolf will never come, but the sheepdog lives for that day. After the attacks on September 11, 2001, most of the sheep, that is, most citizens
> in America said, "Thank God I wasn't on one of
> those planes." The sheepdogs,the warriors, said, "Dear God, I wish I could have been on one of those
> planes. Maybe I could have made a difference." When
> you are truly transformed into a warrior and have truly invested yourself into warriorhood, you want to be there. You want to be able to make a difference.

What type best fits your persona??

> Seven months after the attack on September 11, 2001,
> Todd Beamer was
> honored in his hometown of Cranbury, New Jersey. Todd, as
> you recall, was
> the man on Flight 93 over Pennsylvania who called on his
> cell phone to alert
> an operator from United Airlines about the hijacking. When
> he learned of the
> other three passenger planes that had been used as weapons,
> Todd dropped his
> phone and uttered the words, "Let's roll,"
> which authorities believe was a
> signal to the other passengers to confront the terrorist
> hijackers. In one
> hour, a transformation occurred among the passengers -
> athletes, business
> people and parents.

> -- from sheep to sheepdogs and together they fought the
> wolves, ultimately
>
> saving an unknown number of lives on the ground.
>
>
>
> There is no safety for honest men except by believing
> all possible evil--
> Edmund Burke on evil men
>
>
>
> Here is the point I like to emphasize, especially to
> the thousands of police officers and soldiers I speak to each year. In nature the sheep, real sheep, are born as sheep. Sheepdogs are born that way, and so are wolves.
> They didn't have a choice. But you are not a critter.
> As a human being,you can be whatever you want to be. It is a conscious,moral decision.

> If you want to be a sheep, then you can be a sheep and
> that is okay, but you must understand the price you pay. When the wolf comes,you and your loved ones are going to die if there is not a "sheepdog" there to protect you.
> If you want to be a wolf, you can be one, but the sheepdogs are going hunt you down and you will never have rest, safety, trust or love. But if you want to be a "sheepdog" and walk the warrior's path, then
> you must make a conscious and moral decision every day to dedicate, equip and prepare yourself to thrive in that toxic, corrosive moment when the wolf comes knocking at the door.

> For example, many officers carry their weapons in
> church. They are well
> concealed in ankle holsters, shoulder holsters or
> inside-the-belt holsters
> tucked into the small of their backs. Anytime you go to
> some form of
> religious service, there is a very good chance that a
> police officer in your
> congregation is carrying. You will never know if there is
> such an individual
> in your place of worship, until the wolf appears to
> massacre you and your
> loved ones.

> I was training a group of police officers in Texas, and during the break,one officer asked his friend if he carried his weapon in church. The other cop replied, "I will never be caught without my gun in church." I asked why
> he felt so strongly about this, and he told me about a cop
> he knew who was at a church massacre in Ft. Worth, Texas in 1999. In that incident, a mentally deranged individual came into the church and opened fire, gunning
> down fourteen people. He said that officer believed he
> could have saved every life that day if he had been carrying his gun. His own son was shot,and all he could do was throw himself on the boy's body and wait to die.
> That cop looked me in the eye and said, "Do you have
> any idea how hard it would be to live with yourself after that?"
>
>
>
> Some individuals would be horrified if they knew this
> police officer was
> carrying a weapon in church. They might call him paranoid
> and would
> probably scorn him. Yet these same individuals would be
> enraged and would
> call for "heads to roll" if they found out that
> the airbags in their cars
> were defective, or that the fire extinguisher and fire
> sprinklers in their
> kids' school did not work. They can accept the fact
> that fires and traffic
> accidents can happen and that there must be safeguards
> against them.
>
>
>
> Their only response to the wolf, though, is denial, and all
> too often their
> response to the sheepdog is scorn and disdain. But the
> sheepdog quietly
> asks himself, "Do you have and idea how hard it would
> be to live with
> yourself if your loved ones attacked and killed, and you
> had to stand there
> helplessly because you were unprepared for that day?"
>
>
>
> It is denial that turns people into sheep. Sheep are
> psychologically
>
> destroyed by combat because their only defense is denial,
> which is
>
> counterproductive and destructive, resulting in fear,
> helplessness and
> horror when the wolf shows up.
>
>
>
> Denial kills you twice. It kills you once, at your
> moment of truth when you are not physically prepared: you didn't bring your gun, you didn't train. Your only defense was wishful thinking. Hope is not a strategy.
> Denial kills you a second time because even if you do
> physically survive, and you are psychologically shattered by your fear helplessness and horror at your moment of truth.
>
>
>
> Gavin de Becker puts it like this in Fear Less, his
> superb post-9/11book, which should be required reading for anyone trying to come to terms with our current world situation:
>
>
>
> ...denial can be seductive, but it has an insidious side
> effect. For all the peace of mind deniers think they get by saying it isn't so, the fall they take when faced with new violence is all the more unsettling.
>
>
>
> Denial is a save-now-pay-later scheme, a contract
> written entirely in
> small print, for in the long run, the denying person knows
> the truth on some
> level.
>
>
>
> And so the warrior must strive to confront denial in
> all aspects of his
> life, and prepare himself for the day when evil comes.
>
>
>
> If you are warrior who is legally authorized to carry a weapon and you step outside without that weapon, then you become a sheep,pretending that the bad man will not come today. No one can be "on" 24/7, for a lifetime.
>
>
>
> Everyone needs down time. But if you are authorized to carry a weapon,and you walk outside without it, just take a deep breath,and say this to yourself... "Baa."
>
>
>
> This business of being a sheep or a sheep dog is not a
> yes-no dichotomy.
> It is not an all-or-nothing, either-or choice. It is a
> matter of degrees, a
> continuum. On one end is an abject, head-in-the-sand-sheep
> and on the other
> end is the ultimate warrior. Few people exist completely
> on one end or the
> other. Most of us live somewhere in between. Since 9-11
> almost everyone in
> America took a step up that continuum, away from denial.
> The sheep took a
> few steps toward accepting and appreciating their warriors,
> and the warriors
> started taking their job more seriously. The degree to
> which you move up
> that continuum, away from sheephood and denial, is the
> degree to which you
> and your loved ones will survive, physically and
> psychologically at your
> moment of truth.

This is why I feel folks should carry a gun virtually everywhere. Could I live with myself if something occurred and I could have stopped it? Dunno, but I sure don't plan on having to find out---

--------------------
An armed man is a citizen of his country, an unarmed man just a subject.

Edited by hoppdoc (16/07/08 08:37 PM)