Snipers and Such

Early today, a Tulsa, Oklahoma police sniper shot and killed a man who was holding a two-year-old girl hostage.  The man appeared outside of the home he had commandeered with the girl, and had for several hours been threatening the girl, the police, and anyone else.

Back in July a police sniper in Florida mistakenly shot and killed a hostage instead of the kidnapper.  The kidnapper would not allow anyone in to get the injured woman and she died from her injuries.  The kidnapper later committed suicide.

Have you ever considered what it would be like to be a police sniper?  If you served in the military, perhaps you knew someone who was a sniper for the military.  More probably, though, none of us has ever known anyone who is specifically trained to surreptitiously kill people.

When I heard the news about the Tulsa incident this morning, I put my spoon down that I had been using to eat my cereal, and I just thought for a moment about the man who shot the kidnapper.  I marveled that there are people willing to do that kind of thing, and was extremely saddened at the same time that sometimes people are put in positions of having to do that in order to protect someone else or maintain societal order.  I also decided very quickly that being in that position (as a sniper) was something that was totally outside of my realm of experience, knowledge, or even thought process.  I couldn’t remotely fathom the notion that I could be in such a position and wondered how anyone could.

As a society, we sometimes put our public servants, whether police, military, fire, or others, into positions that we find revolting and undignified…positions into which we would never place ourselves.  Yet we expect someone…someone…to come to our rescue when we foul up in life and living, and cause their services to be needed.  It doesn’t make much sense to me, and probably not to you either, but that’s the way it is.

Sadly, people whose job it is to kill other people will always be needed in this or any other society on the planet.  We will always have those who have no regard for life, law, society, or living.  We will always have need of the services of those whose job it is to do what we could not do ourselves.

Thankfully, there are such people among us who are willing to take on the hard things.  There are people who are willing to do what we can and will not do.  There are people who believe law, life, and living are worth fighting, and in some cases dying for.  These are the people we entrust with the foundations of our society.

So, while you’re eating your cereal, your bagel, or your bacon and eggs, stop for just a second and think of those who are on duty, alert and ready at a moment’s notice to respond to a need.  And give thanks that they are there.