ok how's this:
People aren't livestock such as the author suggests. The fact that we have the ability to think independently, to reason, and to adapt our conduct are not traits shared with the sheep, or the sheepdog, or the wolf. these animals are reactive to stimulus in the context of their environment and their genetic programming.
Just like the heros the author mentions, like todd beamer and those on flight 93 who rose up against the hijackers attempting to use that airplane to attack washington dc, we are people with an abilty to recognize when there is a threat against us. We have benefitted from the contributions and sacrifices of others, people who have given their lives to defending our country from threats by volunteering for the armed dervices as well as those who were called to duty by the draft. Yet those very prople adapted their conduct to meet the challenges and the duties our country asked of them.
we are not passive "sheep" nor are these people who have volunteered or drafted preordained to be "sheepdogs". we are individuals who are able to react to the threats we perceive exist, and we will transition from being defenders to being observers as the need requires.
We are free thinking individuals, and the author may disagree with the conclusions some individuals may come to however those conclusions do not make any of these individuals incapable of ree thought; in fact, these different conclusions, such as jill edwards determined in her oppostion to the staute for pappy boyington, prove that they are not sheep. sheep don't think independently of the flock, they follow the flock.
while I and others may disagree with ms. edwards, her point was to not honor those who have taken lives of others, no matter for what cause that may have been, and she believes that we as a society should not glorify warriors, as inherent in such glorification is the glorification of war itself.
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