Liberty is achieved, when it is achieved, at a price. Vigilance.
And this isn’t just an inspiring political message. It’s practical advice for extraordinary circumstances.
What’s the best thing to do if you meet a mass murderer on a rampage, or a terrorist on his mission? It may not be to merely call 911. As one counterterrorism consultant puts it, “We are conditioned to dial 911 and wait, but, in the case of an active shooter, that does not work.”
This conflict expert, Alon Stivi, went on to explain that “[m]ost casualties occur within the first ten or fifteen minutes, and police response usually is too late.”
And speaking of 911, remember that on 9/11/2001, the most successful anti-terrorist effort was by the passengers of United Airlines Flight 93.
That was heroism. It cost them their lives, but they accomplished something in that they saved lives, too.
Some people don’t like bringing this up for fear of, well, hurting some feelings. But Ari Armstrong has an answer for this:
If we avoid serious discussions about self-defense and survival tactics in cases of intended mass murder out of fear that such discussions are somehow insensitive to victims of past attacks, all we accomplish is to ensure that more people will be murdered in possible future attacks.
There is a reason we should keep ourselves fit, and alert. Who knows when we may be called upon, by circumstance, to defend not only ourselves and our loved ones, but our way of life?
Sure, this “call” is made by the unjust. But we, the just, should answer anyway.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
3 replies on “Heroism for Everybody”
Good, Paul, except you seem to be hanging back their in the dwindling minority of libertarians who believe the official story of the 9/11 attacks, ESPECIALLY the made for TV movie that Flight 93 was designed to be from the beginning. I.e. fiction. No plane augured into that empty crater in Shanksville. Some evidence exists that a plane was shot down in the airspace over that area, but we have no evidence of remains of Flight 93 or its alleged passengers anywhere. That is correct. Please read my condensation and call to minds: After 9/11 Truth (http://www.amazon.com/After-11-Truth-Death-Humanity/dp/1507662416/?tag=thecofcoa-20). Note: Massimo Mazzucco’s film, A New Pearl Harbor, does a fine job of investigation… until the 9/11 grand jury convenes and we can sort all this business out. [Also, how did the sacrifice of ‘those who rushed the cockpit’ of 93 save any other lives?]
Brian — I’ll take a look. I have not seem evidence yet that causes me to believe 911 was an inside job. I’ve been in the minority before, so I’ll not fret about that, but I’m certainly open to the facts. I’m admittedly pretty ignorant of all the debate on this matter.
As for how their sacrifice saved lives, by downing the plane before it could fly into an inhabited office building or other peopled place, they may have saved many hundreds of folks.
Sorry, it should have been “seen” and not “seem” — in 2nd sentence above.