Tuesday, June 23, 2015
When are we going to finally stop identifying and classifying people by the color of their skin? We're all Homo Sapiens no matter what color our skin is. Our species originated in Africa thus technically we're all African Americans. The color of our skin was determined by how close our ancestors lived to the equator. People exposed to a lot of sunlight have brown skin for protection from solar radiation. People in Northern climates where there is limited sunlight have lighter skin which allows them to absorb more solar radiation thus preventing vitamin "D" deficiencies. It's a simple as that. A person's skin color has no bearing on their intelligence, ability, or compassion. America's history of slavery has never been fully acknowledged nor atoned for. It's long past time for America to publicly apologize for the way we've treated people of various colors and physical features over the years and even still do so today. There are no African- Americans, Asian- Americans, Hispanic -Americans. It's time to remove the hyphens. There are only Americans. End of story!
Thursday, June 11, 2015
Police Brutality
You'd think that the police would know by now that they're going to be on National TV every time they use force but it doesn't seem to have sunk in yet. To be fair the police have an extremely dangerous job. Every time they pull someone over for a broken tail light or expired tags they run the risk of being shot or assaulted . The constant stress of dealing with people who are angry, drunk, pugnacious, and carrying weapons builds up over time making it difficult for them to maintain their composer in situations where they have to make split second life or death decisions. It's not an easy job by any stretch of the imagination.
The recent surge of videos showing police violence indicates that some of our law enforcement officers are losing control of their emotions during periods of stress.There are lessons to be learned.
It's clear that more time needs to be spent training the police on how to defuse situations that are getting out of control. Issuing threats, ordering people to obey, raising voices, pushing or shoving, all serve to make the situation worse. In many cases it is probably better to allow a petty criminal to escape rather than use a taser of gun. Additionally, the members of a police force should be rotated every three to six months to less stressful work in order to gain some emotional balance and perspective. Officers should be required to get emotional and stress counseling at least twice a year.
I think many of us would agree that our most of our own experiences with law enforcement officers have been fair and reasonably pleasant. However every once in awhile we encounter a police officer who appears to be tightly wound and a bit scary. It's the job of the supervisors to identify these rouge officers as quickly as possible and take them off the streets before they kill or injure someone. There definitely are some bad cops on the streets but we shouldn't allow the actions of the minority to paint all of the men and women we hire to protect us.
You'd think that the police would know by now that they're going to be on National TV every time they use force but it doesn't seem to have sunk in yet. To be fair the police have an extremely dangerous job. Every time they pull someone over for a broken tail light or expired tags they run the risk of being shot or assaulted . The constant stress of dealing with people who are angry, drunk, pugnacious, and carrying weapons builds up over time making it difficult for them to maintain their composer in situations where they have to make split second life or death decisions. It's not an easy job by any stretch of the imagination.
The recent surge of videos showing police violence indicates that some of our law enforcement officers are losing control of their emotions during periods of stress.There are lessons to be learned.
It's clear that more time needs to be spent training the police on how to defuse situations that are getting out of control. Issuing threats, ordering people to obey, raising voices, pushing or shoving, all serve to make the situation worse. In many cases it is probably better to allow a petty criminal to escape rather than use a taser of gun. Additionally, the members of a police force should be rotated every three to six months to less stressful work in order to gain some emotional balance and perspective. Officers should be required to get emotional and stress counseling at least twice a year.
I think many of us would agree that our most of our own experiences with law enforcement officers have been fair and reasonably pleasant. However every once in awhile we encounter a police officer who appears to be tightly wound and a bit scary. It's the job of the supervisors to identify these rouge officers as quickly as possible and take them off the streets before they kill or injure someone. There definitely are some bad cops on the streets but we shouldn't allow the actions of the minority to paint all of the men and women we hire to protect us.
Tuesday, June 9, 2015
DAVIS- MONTHAN AIR FORCE BASE
At a time when our National defense spending is eating up a major portion of our budget, it seems a shame to try to prevent the Department of Defense from saving millions of dollars of tax payer money by closing Davis-Monthan. If the primary mission of the base is to support the A-10 "Wart Hog" surely that mission could be moved to another base. It's probable that the major contribution the base makes to our local economy is the hiring of local contractors for maintenance work on the base. It's doubtful that the limited number of Air Force personnel on the base with their relatively low salaries contribute that much to the local economy. Surely the land could be put to a higher and more profitable use. How about converting the land to a solar farm for the generation of clean electricity? More work for local contractors and improve the air we breath at the same time. There are lots of innovative things we could do with that land which would provide high paying jobs and contribute to the improvement of our crowded city and culture at the same time. Environmentally friendly jobs - and no more noise or exhaust fumes from the A-10s.
At a time when our National defense spending is eating up a major portion of our budget, it seems a shame to try to prevent the Department of Defense from saving millions of dollars of tax payer money by closing Davis-Monthan. If the primary mission of the base is to support the A-10 "Wart Hog" surely that mission could be moved to another base. It's probable that the major contribution the base makes to our local economy is the hiring of local contractors for maintenance work on the base. It's doubtful that the limited number of Air Force personnel on the base with their relatively low salaries contribute that much to the local economy. Surely the land could be put to a higher and more profitable use. How about converting the land to a solar farm for the generation of clean electricity? More work for local contractors and improve the air we breath at the same time. There are lots of innovative things we could do with that land which would provide high paying jobs and contribute to the improvement of our crowded city and culture at the same time. Environmentally friendly jobs - and no more noise or exhaust fumes from the A-10s.
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