Month: June 2020

The battle royale is about to begin.

Donald Trump has the benefits of incumbency, a great deal of money, an energized and loyal base of supporters, and a blood lust for destroying his opponents through demeaning characterizations – both personal as well as professional.

Joe Biden has been able to take a low-key approach and benefit from miss-steps that Donald Trump has made. These self-inflicted wounds that Donald Trump has taken are significant but not fatal, and in a sense have made him an even more dangerous opponent.

Joe Biden has been characterized as not having been a leader while in the Senate or as Vice-President, having lost several steps in terms of his mental acuity, and without a clear vision of where he intends to take the country should he be elected president. These are significant perceived weaknesses that he must address as the campaign begins in earnest.

He must learn to turn these weaknesses into strengths if he is to win the presidency.

Joe Biden is not a leader? He has spent his career preparing for this moment, to be the leader that can return balance and sanity to our country. Joe Biden has been a senator for decades, a member of the most important legislative body in our government. He has seen and been involved with every important piece of legislation passed during his time in office. He has the experience to know how the business of government is conducted. In addition, Joe Biden has been the vice president for two terms, at the side of the president. He has seen and been involved with many important matters of state, both foreign and domestic. No one has more experience than Joe Biden. He bares the scars of many battles won and lost, and he has endured. This is deserving of respect and admiration.

Joe Biden suffers from cognitive decline? Well, he has never been a great orator, he struggles with a speech impediment, and he can veer off into weird tangents instead of sticking to his main talking points. This is not evidence of cognitive decline, but these limitations and tendencies should be addressed. It is important for Joe Biden to be able to deliver a focused message – preparation will be key. If it takes time for Joe Biden to gather his thoughts, then his demonstrated need to be thoughtful before speaking should be welcomed and commended.

Joe Biden has no vision? He has not yet shown that he has a clear vision, with a plan and program for everything. But what Joe Biden has is a profound feeling for what is right and fair and just. He has empathy. He is humble enough to seek counsel from those around him, and is the type of person who could gather strong and experienced people around him to build a solid cabinet. His integrity will come from within; his strength will come from without.

As the campaign unfolds, Joe Biden must learn to be a rock, to let the attacks of Donald Trump be like a wave breaking against the cliffs, an impressive spray but with no lasting effect. This will take concentration and preparation. Donald Trump has an insidious way of breaking down his opponent’s focus and will. Joe Biden must learn to use silence and a smile to deflect Donald Trump’s attacks, then speak from his heart and deliver a succinct message that does not focus on defending himself but instead speaks past and above whatever Donald Trump says to connect with the soul of the American people.

Much is made of the fact that the U.S. is a country divided, with red states that are conservative, rural, and Republican-leaning, and blue states that are liberal, urban, and Democrat-leaning. Our politicians and pundits love to say that we must come together as one people and one country, and then their conversation degenerates into partisan bickering, name-calling, and blaming.

We need to realize and accept that our politicians and pundits are often motivated by money and power and ego, and that their words of wisdom are simply expressions of their personal bias and self-interest. They are quick to see this in others and point it out ad nauseum, but have no interest in acknowledging their own similar failings. Unfortunately, many of us have taken to acting the same way.

This basic failure in communication is why we have not had a unified direction or purpose for the past 25 years. We have accomplished nothing substantive in this time, nor have we paid much attention to how the world has changed around us, so now we are poorly prepared to address the demands that the future is bringing, both domestically as well as globally.

While our politicians and pundits bicker and posture away, we continue to be in the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic that shows no signs of being under control. Wishful thinking cannot take the place of a vaccine. Right now we have nearly 115,000 deaths due to Covid-19, with a projection of hundreds of additional deaths every day with no end in site. Now that the focus is to reinvigorate the economy without regard to minimizing the spread of the Corona virus, it is not unreasonable to consider the possibility that we could have 330,000 deaths by the end of 2020. This would mean that 1 out of every 1,000 Americans will die from Covid-19 in a year’s time.

No matter if you live in rural America or urban America, a red state or a blue state, this should be a horrifying prospect. This is not a sign of a healthy and vibrant country, this is a sign of a dysfunctional society.

We need a combination of ideas, both red and blue, if we are to regain our balance and direction. We should all embrace our past, which began as a struggle for independence and self-determination. We should all consider ourselves to be independent-minded. We should all question and reject our politicians and pundits when they speak to us in a partisan and manipulative manner. We should insist that the most important issues of our time be addressed with fact-based debate and reasoning.

The major issues facing this country are pretty clear:

A discussion of these issues during the presidential campaign would be a welcome change from the partisan talk and insult politics that is more than likely what we will end up with. Hopefully, at least some of the time, Trump and Biden will take the high road and speak to us in an inspirational and inclusive manner.

Talk about wishful thinking.

We are all aware of the recent murder of a black man in Minnesota, as well as the many other deaths and beatings of civilians at the hands of law enforcement officers that have occurred over the years. Many of these incidents are racially charged and are perpetuated upon men of color, but white men have also been treated this way. Most of the time being a woman allows one to avoid the worst of the violence.

But not always.

A few years ago in New Jersey, a local police officer confronted a man who had broken into a house. The intruder then grabbed a young female college student to serve as a physical shield. Rather than temporarily retreating from the scene and calling for backup and a mediator, the police officer panicked and shot the college student dead before shooting the intruder. Apparently this was the first time that the police officer had drawn his weapon in the line of duty.

After a review by a law enforcement review board, this was determined to have been a justified shooting because the police officer believed that his life was in danger.

At the time that this incident occurred, I had an acquaintance who was attending the police academy. When I asked him if this tragic incident had been discussed at the academy, he told me that it had. The police instructors agreed that it had been a justified shooting, that it was unfortunate that a civilian had died, but that sometimes collateral damage was acceptable in order to protect society.

Who determined that this young woman’s life had to be taken, that her death was simply acceptable collateral damage, and that the local police officer had acted appropriately?

My understanding is that the determination of acceptable police procedures and the review of police actions are typically made by law enforcement professionals who are primarily concerned with ensuring the safety of law enforcement personnel as they act in the line of duty. This is all well and good, but this goal needs to be balanced with the importance of preserving the safety, the dignity, and the right of civilians to enjoy life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

There is clearly an imbalance in the training of law enforcement personnel because the rights of civilians are ignored time and time again whenever law enforcement personnel feel threatened or disrespected. Add in the inherent racist beliefs of some officers and the related devaluation of civilian lives, and the result has been tragedy after tragedy, accompanied by emotional pain and trauma of families and entire communities. This has lead to resentment and distrust by communities of the very people whose responsibility it is to serve and protect them.

The status quo must be changed if things are to improve.

One idea is to require that the training of law enforcement personnel be subject to review and approval by civilian boards appointed by state governors. It is understood that law enforcement organizations generally do not like civilian involvement in their business, but without civilian input and oversight, law enforcement becomes detached from the community at large, and an “us vs. them” mentality can take hold, which is exactly what is not needed.

A second idea is to require that any complaint regarding the actions of law enforcement personnel alleging violations of civil rights be subject to review by this same civilian board, with the facts and findings of the board being made a matter of public record.

A third idea is to require that any shooting or beating of a civilian by a law enforcement officer be considered to be a potential violation of the civilian’s civil rights, with each situation subject not only to review by the civilian board, but also automatically referred to the FBI for review as well.

Law enforcement is too critical and too important a part of our society to be allowed to exist in separation from society. At the same time that we acknowledge the physical and emotional stresses, as well as the actual physical dangers that law enforcement personnel experience during the course of their careers, we must also insist on the right of civilians to be involved in establishing what are acceptable police procedures.

Community policing and community involvement by the police should be the rule and not the exception. The positive actions of our law enforcement officers must always be acknowledged and encouraged. The removal of law enforcement officers that disgrace the profession through criminality, racism, and cruelty must become standard practice.

Clearly, changes have to be made so that civilians, particularly in our minority communities, can trust the police to treat them fairly. Making law enforcement more transparent and accountable is critical to the changes that have to be made.