Craig’s Friday Countdown - What To Do?
On today’s editorial page, Leonard Pitts and the Quad City Times have asked for answers to a woman’s question about what she can do about what is happening in Baltimore and other towns. Here’s my first cut at answers:
#6) Demand professional & transparent local government – Place matters, and the place that matters most is your town. Professional city management and professional, accredited (CALEA, as one example) law enforcement helps communities succeed. Demand the highest professional standards.
#5) Demand independent investigation capability – Law enforcement and prosecution are symbiotic. Power structures protect themselves. These are realities, and thus the best way to maintain integrity in investigatory processes is to have independence built into oversight. Independent review / advocacy commissions (Davenport’s Civil Rights Commission, as an example) with real power, overseen by boards with terms that span beyond presently seated elected officials, are required for justice.
#4) Tune out partisans – When someone starts telling you one of the two dominant political parties has the answer, carefully crafted in some speaking point, move on to discuss the topic with someone more open. Unless you like wasting time.
#3) Resolve what race means to you – Skin color, like eye color, is genetic. If skin color means more to you than eye color, start asking yourself some serious questions.
#2) Don’t let race be a proxy for any other argument – Respecting all the culture built into ethnicity, locale, lineage and socio-economics, don’t accept race as a proxy for any other argument.
#1) Be less of a spectator and more of a participant – Watch less television news, which is generally crafted to trick you into staying tuned until the next commercial, and experience life for yourself. Go to an event you wouldn’t normally go to. Travel some. Read something you think you’ll disagree with. Volunteer at a place where you’ll meet people who’ve had different life experiences.
Life’s good – disconnect from what’s provided via television and go get some.
