The Sheepdogs

Most humans truly are like sheep
Wanting nothing more than peace to keep
To graze, grow fat and raise their young,
Sweet taste of clover on the tongue.
Their lives serene upon Life’s farm,
They sense no threat nor fear no harm.
On verdant meadows, they forage free
With naught to fear, with naught to flee.
They pay their sheepdogs little heed
For there is no threat; there is no need.

To the flock, sheepdogs are mysteries,
Roaming watchful round the peripheries.
These fang-toothed creatures bark, they roar
With the fetid reek of the carnivore,
Too like the wolf of legends told,
To be amongst our docile fold.
Who needs sheepdogs? What good are they?
They have no use, not in this day.
Lock them away, out of our sight
We have no need of their fierce might.

But sudden in their midst a beast
Has come to kill, has come to feast
The wolves attack; they give no warning
Upon that calm September morning
They slash and kill with frenzied glee
Their passive helpless enemy
Who had no clue the wolves were there
Far roaming from their Eastern lair.
Then from the carnage, from the rout,
Comes the cry, “Turn the sheepdogs out!”

Thus is our nature but too our plight
To keep our dogs on leashes tight
And live a life of illusive bliss
Hearing not the beast, his growl, his hiss.
Until he has us by the throat,
We pay no heed; we take no note.
Not until he strikes us at our core
Will we unleash the Dogs of War
Only having felt the wolf pack’s wrath
Do we loose the sheepdogs on its path.
And the wolves will learn what we’ve shown before;
We love our sheep, we Dogs of War.

Russ Vaughn
2d Bn, 327th Parachute Infantry Regiment
101st Airborne Division
Vietnam 65-66

This is a GREAT poem! Sheepdogs look so pensive and nonchalant -- that it, until a predator appears.

As one who taught on the Navajo Reservation for 20 years, I recall being amazed at the attention, care, and attention the dogs provided for the sheep, which are among the most stupid animals on the earth! It was so sad to see how poorly the dogs, the protectors of the sheep, were treated.

Recently, it was reported that Ruth Ginsburg, an associate justice on the United State Supreme Court, became defensive when told that drug-sniffing dogs only respond to note the presence of drugs. The justices were hearing arguments to determine whether or not the presence of drug sniffing dogs constitutes an unreasonable search. Otherwise, there should be no concern was the response of the lawyer (solictor general?) for the defense. It was further reported that a some-what defensive, agitated Ginsburg replied But just the presence of a dog might scare some people. Might this comment from a former high-ranking ACLU lawyer be self-disclosing?

I assume the justice was more concerned with her argument than she was with hearing the arguments set before her by the lawyers. Perhaps the correct thing to have done was to have recused herself due to the potential knee-jerk/activist response she exhibited. So much for "blind" justice.

God help that honorable jurist.