kenpsd

Honor never grows old, and honor rejoices the heart of age. It does so
>because honor is, finally, about defending those noble and worthy things
>that deserve defending, even if it comes at a high cost. In our time, that
>may mean social disapproval, public scorn, hardship, persecution, or as
>always, even death itself. The question remains: What is worth defending?
>What is worth dying for? What is worth living for? - William J. Bennett -
>in a lecture to the United States Naval Academy November 24, 1997
>
>One 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 estimates say that two million Americans are victims of violent
>crimes
>every year, a tragic, staggering number, perhaps an all-time record rate
>of
>violent crime. But there are almost 300 million Americans, which means
>that
>the odds of being a victim of violent crime is considerably less than one
>in a hundred on any given year. Furthermore, since many violent crimes are
>committed by repeat offenders, the actual number of violent citizens is
>considerably less than two million.
>
>Thus there is a paradox, and we must grasp both ends of the situation: We
>may well be in the most violent times in history, but violence is still
>remarkably rare. This is because most citizens are kind, decent people who
>are not capable of hurting each other, except by accident or under extreme
>provocation. They are sheep.
>
>I mean nothing negative by calling them sheep. To me it is like the
>pretty,
>blue robin's egg. Inside it is soft and gooey but someday it will grow
>into
>something wonderful. But the egg cannot survive without its hard blue
>shell. Police officers, soldiers, and other warriors are like that shell,
>and someday the civilization they protect will grow into something
>wonderful.? For now, though, they need warriors to protect them from the
>predators.
>
>"Then there are the wolves," the old war veteran said, "and the wolves
>feed
>on the sheep without mercy." Do you believe there are wolves out there who
>will feed on the flock without mercy? You better believe it. There are
>evil
>men in this world and they are capable of evil deeds. The moment you
>forget
>that or pretend it is not so, you become a sheep. There is no safety in
>denial.
>
>"Then there are sheepdogs," he went on, "and I'm a sheepdog. I live to
>protect the flock and confront the wolf."
>
>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
>
>Let me expand on this old soldier's excellent model of the sheep, wolves,
>and sheepdogs. We know that the sheep live in denial, that is what makes
>them sheep. They do not want to believe that there is evil in the world.
>They can accept the fact that fires can happen, which is why they want
>fire
>extinguishers, fire sprinklers, fire alarms and fire exits throughout
>their
>kids' schools.
>
>But many of them are outraged at the idea of putting an armed police
>officer in their kid's school. Our children are thousands of times more
>likely to be killed or seriously injured by school violence than fire, but
>the sheep's only response to the possibility of violence is denial. The
>idea of someone coming to kill or harm their child is just too hard, and
>so
>they chose the path of denial.
>
>The sheep generally do not like the sheepdog. He looks a lot like the
>wolf.
>He has fangs and the capacity for violence. The difference, though, is
>that
>the sheepdog must not, cannot and will not ever harm the sheep. Any sheep
>dog who intentionally harms the lowliest little lamb will be punished and
>removed. The world cannot work any other way, at least not in a
>representative democracy or a republic such as ours.
>
>Still, the sheepdog disturbs the sheep. He is a constant reminder that
>there are wolves in the land. They would prefer that he didn't tell them
>where to go, or give them traffic tickets, or stand at the ready in our
>airports in camouflage fatigues holding an M-16. The sheep would much
>rather have the sheepdog cash in his fangs, spray paint himself white, and
>go, "Baa."
>
>Until the wolf shows up. Then the entire flock tries desperately to hide
>behind one lonely sheepdog.
>
>The students, the victims, at Columbine High School were big, tough high
>school students, and under ordinary circumstances they would not have had
>the time of day for a police officer. They were not bad kids; they just
>had
>nothing to say to a cop. When the school was under attack, however, and
>SWAT teams were clearing the rooms and hallways, the officers had to
>physically peel those clinging, sobbing kids off of them. This is how the
>little lambs feel about their sheepdog when the wolf is at the door.
>
>Look at what happened after September 11, 2001 when the wolf pounded hard
>on the door. Remember how America, more than ever before, felt differently
>about their law enforcement officers and military personnel? Remember how
>many times you heard the word hero?
>
>Understand that there is nothing morally superior about being a sheepdog;
>it is just what you choose to be. Also understand that a sheepdog is a
>funny critter: He is always sniffing around out on the perimeter, checking
>the breeze, barking at things that go bump in the night, and yearning for
>a
>righteous battle. That is, the young sheepdogs yearn for a righteous
>battle. The old sheepdogs are a little older and wiser, but they move to
>the sound of the guns when needed right along with the young ones.
>
>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.
>
>There is nothing morally superior about the sheepdog, the warrior, but he
>does have one real advantage. Only one. And that is that he is able to
>survive and thrive in an environment that destroys 98 percent of the
>population. There was research conducted a few years ago with individuals
>convicted of violent crimes. These cons were in prison for serious,
>predatory crimes of violence: assaults, murders and killing law
>enforcement
>officers. The vast majority said that they specifically targeted victims
>by
>body language: slumped walk, passive behavior and lack of awareness. They
>chose their victims like big cats do in Africa, when they select one out
>of
>the herd that is least able to protect itself.
>
>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, and I'm proud to say that more and more
>Americans are choosing to become sheepdogs.
>
>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 of
>evil men. - Edmund Burke
>
>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's 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 to 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 were 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, 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-9/11
>book, 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.

Have a read of this, sent to me from the US, given as a lecture I believe at the Ranger School. Not a bad article, in my view, some valid points.