I think you can piggyback off the Kardashian article, the rich not paying their fair share of taxes. The whole structure is geared to favor the wealthy! With K Street’s stranglehold on politicians kowtowing for donations, predominantly from corporate interest, the elephant in the room gets what he wants. Hence, the monies for social safety nets is a mere pile of shit, laden with peanuts! Ironically, you’d think less money would be needed for the struggling if a rising tide would lift all boats. But currently this isn’t the case, some people would rather see them drown. There’s little empathy from the haves toward the have nots. “Just pull up your mother fuckin’ boot straps”! The resources just aren’t enough, or peanuts as Jon Oliver pointed out. Lastly, I empathize with the heaven burden bestowed upon police officers. It’s as if they’re supposed to enforce the law and be crisis counselors. I know some cities have recognized this discrepancy, which is a step forward and had made some changes. I can’t imagine how one just turns off the trauma of that profession each day going back to their families. More funding for cops, teachers and an outlet for the less fortunate.🤞
Where does it end? Short (and only) answer: It doesn't. At least not until Americans begin to realize that we really ARE all in this together. That means ALL of us, including the very wealthy, paying their fair share. It means we stop sending $2,000,000,000 through the front door of the Pentagon every damn day. It means we begin using those incredible generous resources to do good by and for Americans instead of developing new and ever more efficient ways to kill people in foreign lands.
We have the means and the methods available to us to care for our own. What we lack is the will.
I'm looking at you, Congress...especially y'all with an "R" behind your names.
You've identified another dimension of policing that is rarely considered, which is the grinding, hopeless, and wholly explicable debilitating squalor that cops face on a daily basis. In the justified furor over the unjustified killings of unarmed Black people, it is easy to forget that policing isn't an just an oppressive and clannish institution. It's an institution that must be serviced by those willing to take on unpleasant, and sometimes dangerous, tasks, for which they receive little to no gratitude. Last week at my apartment I was reminded of this. Last weekend, there was a hostage/stand-off/eventual suicide, but thankfully not murder-suicide, event, at my apartment complex. The tableau started in the middle of the night, with frightful nearby door-banging, followed by gunshots, then hours of police negotiations lasting until Saturday afternoon before it was finally, and fatally, resolved. The point here, is that despite my righteous opposition to police misconduct, and sometimes rank criminality, I was pleased beyond adequate expression for those policemen, special ops, and hostage negotiators that literally kept us residents safe. Had I the opportunity, I would have shaken their all hands. I am similarly pleased that your son, Stacey is among them, because whatever the risks, whatever the attendant drawbacks, we can't do without them.
A friend of mine's sister is married to a cop (now retired). He was a lead homicide detective in Chicago. And by "lead," I mean he was the go-to guy they'd lend to police departments in Namibia where he could teach forensics and investigative techniques.
Now this guy liked dressing well as much (in some cases more) than the next guy, but he basically bought all of his work clothes at Ross or even Goodwill.
This is related to the fact that the family had an incinerator at the back of their yard.
About once every year or so, he'd come home and the stench of death on his clothes was so thick that the only thing they could do was burn everything he'd been wearing that day.
I was also reminded of the TV series "Hill Street Blues" from the '80's. This was the first show that genuinely humanized cops: neither super heroes nor super villains, just people. The dirt and grit in the station makes me feel less ashamed of the conditions in my trailer. The entire series is currently available on Hulu.
Finally, this sentence grabbed me: "What does a society do with those who, through no fault of their own, don’t fit the mold?" This leads to a wild tangent, since most of the folks who "don't fit" actually want to, but are not allowed to and have been denied the opportunities to do so. Most folks. So, tangent:
I've actually been thinking about this a lot, with no clear sense of where to go with it. The brilliant science fiction author Samuel R. Delany touches on it in several stories. In one he floats the hypothesis that (and I'm quoting from memory here, so while the gist is correct the exact wording is probably off), "the most valuable elements in any society are the criminals and the artists, for they are the only ones in a position to challenge that society's values." (He might have said "outlaws" rather than "criminals," and I rather hope/wish he did, as it is the more appropriate term here.)
He picks up this theme in the short story, "We In Some Mysterious Power's Employ Move in a Rigorous Line." The story follows the crew on this massive machine that goes about maintaining the "grid" (my term): basically electricity, water, telephone; if it were rewritten it would include internet and cable. The crew gets an alert about a seemingly impossible situation: a group of people who are living entirely OFF the grid! This is something which cannot be tolerated, so they divert to the location of this group to bring them the blessings of civilization. And therein lies the rub: the people don't want to be on the grid, but the Powers of the grid are incapable of imagining anyone on the outside of "Mysterious Power's" beneficence. The off-gridders are ultimately destroyed, the remaining member scatter to the winds, and the absolutely well-meaning employees are left totally baffled.
And what I'm beginning to understand from all of this is that some people simply do not, can not, "fit." All of the genuine, sincere, well intentioned beneficence will not make them fit. And with nowhere to go, no unclaimed space "off the grid," then the only other way out is down, down into drugs, self-destruction, and deliberate ruin.
I've been thinking about this in the context of the Star Trek story universe. I mean, who *wouldn't* want to live in the Federation, where basic living is guaranteed and opportunities for personal discovery and flourishing are practically boundless? How could anyone wish for anything other than living on the grid, under the mindful generosity of the Mysterious Power's Employ? And yet some people would. Some people would have to reject it, not out of any principled disagreements with the ideals of that society but because the only way they can find themselves is in the negative spaces, the interstices where the categories fail to fully overlap. (By the way, there's a name for that Star Trek ideal society: it is called "Fully Automated Luxury Communism." There's a book by that title as well.)
Anyway, the more I've written here, the less confident I've become that it is actually relevant to your post. Speaking of "post", here's the theme song to "Hill Street Blues" (composed by Mike Post):
I think you can piggyback off the Kardashian article, the rich not paying their fair share of taxes. The whole structure is geared to favor the wealthy! With K Street’s stranglehold on politicians kowtowing for donations, predominantly from corporate interest, the elephant in the room gets what he wants. Hence, the monies for social safety nets is a mere pile of shit, laden with peanuts! Ironically, you’d think less money would be needed for the struggling if a rising tide would lift all boats. But currently this isn’t the case, some people would rather see them drown. There’s little empathy from the haves toward the have nots. “Just pull up your mother fuckin’ boot straps”! The resources just aren’t enough, or peanuts as Jon Oliver pointed out. Lastly, I empathize with the heaven burden bestowed upon police officers. It’s as if they’re supposed to enforce the law and be crisis counselors. I know some cities have recognized this discrepancy, which is a step forward and had made some changes. I can’t imagine how one just turns off the trauma of that profession each day going back to their families. More funding for cops, teachers and an outlet for the less fortunate.🤞
Where does it end? Short (and only) answer: It doesn't. At least not until Americans begin to realize that we really ARE all in this together. That means ALL of us, including the very wealthy, paying their fair share. It means we stop sending $2,000,000,000 through the front door of the Pentagon every damn day. It means we begin using those incredible generous resources to do good by and for Americans instead of developing new and ever more efficient ways to kill people in foreign lands.
We have the means and the methods available to us to care for our own. What we lack is the will.
I'm looking at you, Congress...especially y'all with an "R" behind your names.
You've identified another dimension of policing that is rarely considered, which is the grinding, hopeless, and wholly explicable debilitating squalor that cops face on a daily basis. In the justified furor over the unjustified killings of unarmed Black people, it is easy to forget that policing isn't an just an oppressive and clannish institution. It's an institution that must be serviced by those willing to take on unpleasant, and sometimes dangerous, tasks, for which they receive little to no gratitude. Last week at my apartment I was reminded of this. Last weekend, there was a hostage/stand-off/eventual suicide, but thankfully not murder-suicide, event, at my apartment complex. The tableau started in the middle of the night, with frightful nearby door-banging, followed by gunshots, then hours of police negotiations lasting until Saturday afternoon before it was finally, and fatally, resolved. The point here, is that despite my righteous opposition to police misconduct, and sometimes rank criminality, I was pleased beyond adequate expression for those policemen, special ops, and hostage negotiators that literally kept us residents safe. Had I the opportunity, I would have shaken their all hands. I am similarly pleased that your son, Stacey is among them, because whatever the risks, whatever the attendant drawbacks, we can't do without them.
A friend of mine's sister is married to a cop (now retired). He was a lead homicide detective in Chicago. And by "lead," I mean he was the go-to guy they'd lend to police departments in Namibia where he could teach forensics and investigative techniques.
Now this guy liked dressing well as much (in some cases more) than the next guy, but he basically bought all of his work clothes at Ross or even Goodwill.
This is related to the fact that the family had an incinerator at the back of their yard.
About once every year or so, he'd come home and the stench of death on his clothes was so thick that the only thing they could do was burn everything he'd been wearing that day.
I was also reminded of the TV series "Hill Street Blues" from the '80's. This was the first show that genuinely humanized cops: neither super heroes nor super villains, just people. The dirt and grit in the station makes me feel less ashamed of the conditions in my trailer. The entire series is currently available on Hulu.
Finally, this sentence grabbed me: "What does a society do with those who, through no fault of their own, don’t fit the mold?" This leads to a wild tangent, since most of the folks who "don't fit" actually want to, but are not allowed to and have been denied the opportunities to do so. Most folks. So, tangent:
I've actually been thinking about this a lot, with no clear sense of where to go with it. The brilliant science fiction author Samuel R. Delany touches on it in several stories. In one he floats the hypothesis that (and I'm quoting from memory here, so while the gist is correct the exact wording is probably off), "the most valuable elements in any society are the criminals and the artists, for they are the only ones in a position to challenge that society's values." (He might have said "outlaws" rather than "criminals," and I rather hope/wish he did, as it is the more appropriate term here.)
He picks up this theme in the short story, "We In Some Mysterious Power's Employ Move in a Rigorous Line." The story follows the crew on this massive machine that goes about maintaining the "grid" (my term): basically electricity, water, telephone; if it were rewritten it would include internet and cable. The crew gets an alert about a seemingly impossible situation: a group of people who are living entirely OFF the grid! This is something which cannot be tolerated, so they divert to the location of this group to bring them the blessings of civilization. And therein lies the rub: the people don't want to be on the grid, but the Powers of the grid are incapable of imagining anyone on the outside of "Mysterious Power's" beneficence. The off-gridders are ultimately destroyed, the remaining member scatter to the winds, and the absolutely well-meaning employees are left totally baffled.
And what I'm beginning to understand from all of this is that some people simply do not, can not, "fit." All of the genuine, sincere, well intentioned beneficence will not make them fit. And with nowhere to go, no unclaimed space "off the grid," then the only other way out is down, down into drugs, self-destruction, and deliberate ruin.
I've been thinking about this in the context of the Star Trek story universe. I mean, who *wouldn't* want to live in the Federation, where basic living is guaranteed and opportunities for personal discovery and flourishing are practically boundless? How could anyone wish for anything other than living on the grid, under the mindful generosity of the Mysterious Power's Employ? And yet some people would. Some people would have to reject it, not out of any principled disagreements with the ideals of that society but because the only way they can find themselves is in the negative spaces, the interstices where the categories fail to fully overlap. (By the way, there's a name for that Star Trek ideal society: it is called "Fully Automated Luxury Communism." There's a book by that title as well.)
Anyway, the more I've written here, the less confident I've become that it is actually relevant to your post. Speaking of "post", here's the theme song to "Hill Street Blues" (composed by Mike Post):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Je2fGzKiqRM&ab_channel=BrillVideos