General Peter van Uhm is the Netherlands chief of defense. In the following TED presentation, he explains why he chose a gun to make the world a better place. Others choose a pen or brush.
He intentionally picked up a gun.
I’ve not talked about my military service on my blogs. His presentation is a superb proxy for why I took my turn carrying a gun, especially one that held frightening power.
Here’s the reason in one phrase: Terrible, horrible, humanity-crushing, world-destroying, otherwise-unrestrained evil did not disappear when Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan were defeated.
Someone must stand in the gap to resist. I took my turn for four years.
Evil hasn’t disappeared even today, which is why so many of our fellow citizens in democracies have also picked up a gun to make the world a better place.
Sheep, Wolves, Sheepdogs
Most people are like sheep – blissfully unaware of the evil around them and don’t even know how to fight off the wolves that would eat them. Probably don’t even realize there are wolves watching from the tree line over there.
Some people are like wolves – out to kill and devour the sheep.
A few people are sheepdogs – they will fight and defeat the wolves who want nothing other than to kill off as many sheep as they can catch. Chasing off the wolves or scaring them to stay away is sufficient sometimes. Other times the wolves just need to be killed.
Check out the movie American Sniper if you want current visuals of what evil looks like. In the movie you will find a brief verbal explanation of sheep, wolves, and sheepdogs along with extended visuals of each.
General Peter van Uhm and the late Chris Kyle are sheepdogs.
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