We were all saddened to learn of the unexpected death of one of the most universally loved and admired Americans in history, Dolly Parton. When was the last time a celebrity died and no one had a bad word to say about them? She was the personification of kindness, of niceness, and of generosity.
Not to mention practicality. Ms. Parton was One of Us. She wasn’t shy about admitting that she carried a gun.
In about the same 24-hour period, we lost one of the great modern police use of force instructors. Vince O’Neill began his career as a Kansas cop and went on to become a famous instructor at Oklahoma’s state academy. Recognizing the dangers of provincialism in institutional training, he brought in many outside specialists including me to teach there. Vince O’Neill was a true polymath, the rare one who excelled in every corner of a multidimensional discipline: a champion shooter and master firearms instructor, he was also a master of hand-to-hand control and arrest tactics, less-lethal weaponry, and policy development.
I’m sure it was coincidence that they both passed so close together. Still, I like to think that it might just be that when God called for Dolly Parton, he felt she deserved the best possible bodyguard to accompany her on the way up.