You're goofing off at work. Or at home. If I'm here, I'm surely
goofing off too.
And because this is the end of the Profile, I'll leave you with
this interesting essay to pad out the word count requirement:
On Sheep, Wolves, and Sheepdogs - Dave Grossman
By LTC (RET) Dave Grossman, author of "On Killing."
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, can not 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 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 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 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.
