Yet, again tragedy has struck - this time in Colorado. Thanks to the news media, report after report after report and opinion after opinion after opinion flood the airways and print with discussions of what happened, why it happened and how it happened.  Fortunately or unfortunately, the reality is few of us will ever "understand" it.

What is relevant is once again, innocent people were caught in a random act of evil; a senseless attack perpetrated by someone that (prior to the orange hair) looked normal, was above average in intelligence and seemingly successful.

Evil can be defined as the absence of good. Like Columbine and Virginia Tech, this doesn't make sense. The reality is it won't; because it never can.

One person, for whatever reason, calmly planned and executed a cowardly, dastardly and despicable attack.   The attack targeted people that he never had contact with before he started pulling the trigger. Now, he has drawn the rest of us into this madness. Over the next days, weeks and months more details will surface, more details but still more questions. Many of these questions will never have answers.

While it is an interesting psychological exercise to rationalize the irrational, it doesn't work. While we all would like to be able to recognize potential dangers, sometimes "life happens". Sure, you may be able to be sensitive to danger signs. Sure, you may be able to recognize circumstances that common sense says are dangerous. These you may be able to avoid.

When circumstances occur that you have zero control of, most folks go through a rational process.  First, shock - what is happening, why is it happening, who is doing it and why?

The next step can be the final step - what do you do?  This is critical but you don't always get to make that step.  Some people never have the chance to chose, they are killed before they realize they are about to die.  Others freeze; there is simply too much data, too much confusion, too much trauma, too little training, too little time, too few options. 

Others look to escape, they flee. Whether they make it out safely or not depends more on luck and circumstance than planning.

Stories of self sacrifice and bravery are coming out now; people helping people, friends protecting friends with their own bodies, random acts of kindness and courage in the midst of evil.

What has been missing is a story about men charging the gun man. What is missing is a story about someone returning fire. What is missing is someone fighting back!  I can't judge the people and what they did or did not do, I simply point out their choices were die or run!

There is a tragedy of inaction that keeps surfacing in these incidents, run - hide - or die seems to be the result.

Retired Army LtCol Dave Grossman wrote an essay entitled Sheep, Sheep Dogs and Wolves, in it he identified, "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.

 

Then there are the wolves,... 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,.. and I'm a sheepdog. I live to protect the flock and confront the wolf. Or, as a sign in one California law enforcement agency put it, "We intimidate those who intimidate others.

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? Then you are 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.

I also claim the sheepdog status. The problem is sheepdogs have been demeaned and denigrated to the point there are fewer of us; at the very point in time when we need more.

The answer is not gun control. The answer is not more police. The answer is not more "big brother". The answer is we need more sheepdogs.