Track 6 - Hero

On May 21, 1998 nearly a year before the Columbine shooting, a boy named Kip Kinkel walked into Thurston High School in Springfield, OR and opened fire. He killed two students and injured 22 others. I remember the event not for the horrifying act itself but for the story within the story. The part of the story that stuck out to me and burned a permanent scar in my memory and I think of it often is how it ended. Kip's rifle ran out of ammunition after firing more than four dozen rounds. In the few seconds that the shooter began to reload, Jacob Ryker, sprang to action. He had already been injured but it didn't stop him. He tackled Kinkel taking another bullet to the chest but managed to disarm him and hold him down until the police arrived. Who knows how many students owe their lives to the courage of their fellow classmate, Jacob Ryker.

I travel each week. Being on the road and coming in contact with so many people I have often had the thought, could I be a hero? I think I could. In fact, I have committed to being one when the time comes if it ever does. My father taught me that if I make up my mind ahead of time, when the decision making moment arrives, the choice has already been made. My fellow sales guys and I have tossed the idea around. The fear exists that one day a disgruntled former attendee will emerge with a gun and start shooting in one of the meetings. There are crazy people out there. My mind is made up in the face of peril I am not going to hesitate, hide, or run. I'm taking the sucker down like United flight 93. I almost had my chance.

I was working in southern Mississippi in a ballroom filled with nearly 200 people. I was talking to a pair of attendees in the front of the room when unexpectedly, I heard some women scream and a commotion in the back. Over the microphone, I heard the speaker plead for some help from the crowd. I had no idea what was happening. I shot my eyesight across the crowd and before I could even compute in my mind what was happening I saw another sales rep along with two guests tackle another guy. What happened was the restrained dude started beating up his girlfriend in the middle of our sales break. She ran for cover, trying to get away. His pursuit was determined and vicious. He knocked a table out of the way. Grabbed the girl by her hair and yanked her around while the crowd tried to stop him and then.... it was all over as quickly as it had begun. I didn't have the chance to Jake the Snake Roberts flying body slam him. But here's the thing, I was ready and willing to. I can almost say I'm desirous to be a hero. So if you are ever out when tragedy strikes, just hope that I'm somewhere near because if I'm going down, I'm going down in a blaze of glory!