Due to the high incarceration rates in the United States correctional
workers have gained a sufficient amount of notice to entitle them a
considerable share of public attention. Unfortunately the public has little
knowledge of what a correctional officer does for a living and finding another
occupation that is close to their way of life was difficult to say the least.
However when I searched for commonalities I found a list of characteristics
that matched up almost perfectly with a few exceptions here and there but well
within a blurred line to consider them analogous in some manner with some
elements of a paradox to keep things interesting. Although not a perfect match,
the contrast is equal to the task at hand.
Both occupations are unique. Their duties are of those that
are to always be on top of things and alert. The cowboy rides the herd on
horseback and sees to it that no strays wonder off from their assigned areas.
At times these cowboys have to wrangle the cattle and prepare to ship them
elsewhere either by land or by rail. Cowboys and officers are both called upon
to round up the dispersed herd and collect them for the purpose of branding
them or assigning an identification number to them to single them out of the
herd if need be.
The main ingredient and chief characteristic of the cowboy
and the correctional officer is courage, physical alertness, ability to endure
exposures and a kind of skillset to use whatever tools are required to keep the
herd together. Cowboys and officers are both creatures of circumstances and act
mostly in a reactive mode to keep things orderly and quiet. Some cowboys wear
clothing that are distinctive to his or her badge of calling and reflects their
personal appearance as a proclamation what sort of person they are. Officers
wear uniforms to proclaim their role and also declare what kind of person they
are and purpose hired on for.
Strangely cowboys often travel beyond the normal boundaries
of society and were scattered over vast areas to ride the herd. Their presence
in the wilderness was beyond efficient protection from civilized and organized
law thus in essence they became the law as a necessity to maintain order. One
could surmise that in many ways, officers do the same thing as the culture and
society behind the high fences and iron gates is ruthless and lawless thus a
stern hand is needed to maintain law and order.
Some cowboys were characterized as ruffians and an
undeveloped class of society. However, like officers working inside the
prisons, most of them were better disposed and were true and trustworthy in
their role as guardians in where their presence within such a hostile and
volatile environment often developed generous human traits of kindness and
heroic traits of character. Unfortunately society has tagged them both to be
inclined to demonstrate acts of violence or other commit other negative
passions upon the slightest provocation around them when the opposite is true
as they are both effective peacemakers.
Regardless of public opinion and misunderstandings the
cowboy and correctional officer shares a peculiar characteristic that qualifies
them to be important to the public. By the mere choices of their occupational
assignment as cowboys and correctional officers and by virtue of both of their
abilities to demonstrate courage and recklessness when faced with danger, they
excel in what they were hired to do.
Demonstrating a skill with firearms and a proven
demonstration of their efficiency to handle or influence those things they do which
they may have to exert upon others, they have been instrumental in preventing
harm to others and preventing outbreaks of events that might impact the community
or others around them whether that be a disease such as mad cow disease or
other communicable diseases that may occur inside prisons.
Both have exhibited great efficiency in protecting the
communities against predatory incursions and possess a staunch personal constitution
and attitude throughout their performance to do what it the right thing to do
to keep things together.
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