"What is worth defending?

What is worth dying for?

What is worth living for?"

William J. Bennett

I had the pleasure & honor of being invited to Lt. Col. Dave Grossman's presentation to hundreds of RCMP Members.

Col. Grossman is intuitive. During a break, he walked up to me, introduced himself and asked, "When were you on active duty Marine?"

We chatted about a mentor, Lt. Rex Applegate who penned, "Kill or Get Killed" and instructed numerous riot squad officers on the west coast.

"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 and the wolves feed on the sheep. There are evil people in this world who 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. I'm a sheepdog. I live to protect the flock and confront the wolves.

"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.

'The Angel of the Night'

by Lt. Col Dave Grossman

"Fear not the night.

Fear that which walks the night.

And I am that which walks the night.

But only evil need fear me...

and gentle souls sleep safe in their

beds...because I walk the night."

"Wyoming Secrets"

"The sheep generally do not like the sheepdog. He looks a lot like the wolf. He has fangs and the capacity for violence.

"The sheepdog disturbs the sheep. He is a constant reminder that there are wolves in the land.

"Understand that there is nothing morally superior about being a sheepdog; it is just what you choose to be.

A sheepdog is always sniffing around out on the perimeter, checking the breeze, barking at things that go bump in the night, they move to the sound of the guns.

"After the attacks on September 11, 2001, most of the sheep, that is, most citizens 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."

Lt. Col. Dave Grossman