I was watching an old Bonanza show today and what I watched seemed to be exactly what is happening in the world around us with people of age. It's amazing that even the show of back in those days depicted the thoughts we're all under today. And yes even back in the 60's when Bonanza was being filmed it was the same ordeal.
What this story was about was an aging Sheriff in Virgina City, Roy Coffee. The title was "No Less Than A Man". He was up in age, carried no gun and believed you didn't need a fast gun to keep order. The town differed in opinion. They felt he was to old to do the job of maintaining proper order and wanted him gone. But the only way to get rid of him was the town had to vote Adam and Ben Cartwright from the city counsel since they were backing ole Roy. Once they got Adam and Ben out then they could fire Roy.
As the story goes they had a gang coming to town. The Wagner gang who was notorious about robbing the banks in the territory, molesting women and anything they felt like doing. Anyway throughout the show you saw Adam and Roy installing bars over a building's windows and nobody understood what was going on and thought Roy and Adam was crazy as in "what the hell are you doing"? The town people were worried and dazzled about "what will we do when this gang comes to town"? Roy had no worries and suggested the towns people let him do his job. But with no support they rallied against him and put together a somewhat mob to protect the inner city.
To cut to the chase, Roy had no support other than the Cartwrights. When the gang got to town they saw no one was on the streets and thought maybe it was a trap and then noticed the Sheriff (Roy) standing outside the bank. They road up to him, stepped off their horses and asked, "hey ole man you don't carry a gun anymore", and "where's all the people". Roy stated he ordered everyone off the street because he didn't want anyone getting hurt, and no as he exclaimed, "I do not carry a gun, because we don't want anyone getting hurt, so go on,get what you came after and be on your way". The gang thought that was pretty smart coming from and ole coot. So they preceded into the bank and started the search for the money.
No money could be found and started questioning the banker and forced him to open the vault. Still no money as the leader walked out and figured we'll go and kick that Sheriff's butt and he'll tell us where the money is. The banker grabbed the vault door and pulled it closed and locked himself in. Well the gang couldn't get to him, he was locked inside this steel box and no one knew the combination. As they approached the door to the outside, Sheriff Roy ran to the door, closed it and barricaded it with a bar that was installed outside locking them inside. They tried the windows only to find out the reason Adam and Roy was putting up bars were because they were putting them up on the bank. The gang couldn't get out. No door, no windows so lets just start shooting at the Sheriff who was hiding behind a wagon. Then last but not least they realized we're wasting ammunition. At that point good ole Old Roy hollered to them "you can't go nowhere, you can keep shooting until you run out, you can stay in the bank for a week, a month, but you're not going anywhere. Now throw out your guns, it's over". Yep it was over and the ole gezzard Sheriff Roy Coffee caught the entire gang without force, no guns and by himself.
Now the moral behind this show and what my comparison is, is simple. The town was Upper Management/Corporate, they wanted the underlings (the Sheriff) fired (fired/laid off)and replaced with a quicker gun(Youth) because youth was quicker on the draw. However the Cartwrights knew better about Roy. He had what most older workers have today that most youth haven't had yet; and that management and the corporate world is overlooking; experience.
In the end the town (Management/Corporate) admitted they made a mistake and didn't realize that sometimes experience speaks louder than someone with a sharp wit or in this case a quick gun.Sometimes that experience if given a chance can prove to steer a company right toward the direction they've been wanting to go. Sometimes you really have to quit thinking the worst about people growing older. Wisdom, knowledge, experience and believing in what could be may be exactly what you need. It's not always the appearance of youth that brings fresh ideas, but knowing that you have; someone dependable that cares about the job in Roy's case the town, the employees and company, as Roy stated (the family)and is willing to use that wisdom and knowledge to benefit not themselves but to continue the path of the company's (the family's)success.
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