This is no way to treat heroes.

Police clash with protesters in Berkeley, Missouri after a white police officer shoots and kills an armed black teen during a robbery (MSNBC, 2014-12-24).

We teach soldiers to kill. We teach police officers to protect us with deadly force. We train them so well that it becomes nearly instinctual.

Then we arm them and place them in situations where they will encounter real and perceived threats, and expect them to navigate the unknowns and reason to a peaceful solution.

Humans aren't wired that way, and you can't rewire them.

That's why it only takes one shock to a lab mouse's feet for him to learn to stay off the floor, or one burn to our fingers to learn that a stove is hot.

And when we try to wire them back the way they were, they internalize the conflict, and sometime project it on others, or end their lives, or descend into self medication.

That's what we do to our heroes.

[2014-12-07]

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