Coronavirus...I'm done talking about it
COVID-19 will continue to shape how I act and what I do until a vaccine comes along. Now well into my 70's, I am a member of the 'at risk population', even though I have the 'immune system of an ox' as my dad would often say. I now cringe every time I meet someone in my apartment building hall or elevator not wearing a mask or practice social distancing. It's hurtful to see them ignore my safety, yet still smile at me. I guess it's the new normal.
It's difficult to protect yourself from stupid people except to stay away from anywhere they gather like gaggles of geese. So that means for me - no restaurant dining, protest marches, bar sitting, and indoor and outdoor concerts and political rallies. Stupid is what stupid does and I'm not going to be stupid.
I now turn to another subject. Black Lives Matter protests may actually be making a difference to stimulate positive change in our American culture of systemic racism. Policing is only one of our cultural institutions, but a most critical one. There is a way forward, if we white people with power, stop police from abusing and killing African American men when they do not take such action with white men in the same circumstances.
Our democracy works when we, white people with privileged power, join African Americans in the streets to protest against this systemic pattern of atrocities and attempts to justify them in the face to clear evidence. When whites recognize what African Americans have known and lived through since the post-civil ware reconstruction era, change is possible. We become the force behind institutional power to change policies. We white people must recognize our 'white privilege' and the depths to which it has driven our own beliefs and behavior and resulting impact on African Americans. Our whiteness blinds us.
I learned many years ago that trying to change strongly held beliefs is an uphill battle; however, if you can monitor behavior with clear accountability and consequences, eventually beliefs will evolve with the behavior as the behaviors embed themselves itself into our muscle memory. As police abuse and killing are punished for the crimes they are, police won't shoot so much or become abusive because of the color of someone's skin.
The foundation for equality under the law must be behavior policy driven -- state, local and federal governments must put into policy clearly define standards of acceptable police behavior and enforced consequences for not applying those standards. We must eliminate our dual system of policing -- one for whites and one for African Americans. Our police can no longer be trained as military warriors; they must be trained and rewarded to be community protectors, not the purveyors of deadly force. This is where my heart and hope for change is. Is it easy? Not by a long shot, but we have to start somewhere if our country's constitutional rights and values are to survive.