Meanderings

Police Discipline: COVID has brought fresh attention to methods of education. Although we have been adjusting to the challenges, more needs to be done. We know this. We have sensed it many times but now we know something more: the entirety of America’s education system needs to be reimagined. There are those who are already working on solutions, but the solutions will only work if they are adopted throughout the system.

Policing needs reimagining as well. Today police officers are all too often prone to killing suspects. Much is learned after the violent incident. Mostly we learn that the dead would have been innocent of charges. And if they deserved arrest and jail time, the likely outcome would not result in a death sentence. No; black people are being killed by police because of other issues. We need to insist this problem be fixed. That is all that is meant by the phrase ‘defund police.’ It is a catch phrase designed to stop business as usual and rethink what ought to be happening.

Don’t let this time of awareness get lost in the noise of COVID, elections, economic recession, and rampant natural disasters caused by global warming. All these things need our attention. But the police issue is a core principle of our value for justice.

Calm: anxious times. Very anxious times. We need to find sources of calm. Deep breathing helps. Sitting in silence with eyes closed helps. A walk in nature soothes. Faith in ourselves and each other also helps. Knowing we have been through bad times before and survived, even thrived, should bring us calm.

Tending to our own business and helping family members and neighbors restores calm. Draw near to your loved ones. Cherish the good in life. Be grateful. Give thanks.

And then move on with life as best you can. Calm should return spontaneously. It is something we can do for ourselves. We should.

Black Lives Matter: the beat continues. Black Lives Matter is not a rally cry anymore. No; it is a statement of fact. Black lives do matter in America. As a society we have not shown this very well. It is a problem that needs fixing. In America, we fix what is broken.

My larger concern is how do we repair the damage done to Black lives all these generations? How do we embrace them and heal the hurts, the marginalized careers and dreams, the violence, poverty and stunted potential? That is a tall order. We need to address it, however. And then do something meaningful about it. This is a separate issue from fixing the brokenness of our systemic racism. That is a separate issue and it is enormous. It is proper we know that BLM encompasses two big problems. Both deserve attention.

November 2, 2020