It’s time to add some pledges to the Pledge of Allegiance

Maybe the pledge could be expanded & made more specific

I’m fine with the Pledge of Allegiance and certainly consider myself patriotic. It’s inspirational and aspirational but what exactly is it calling us to do? The addition of reference to “God” was included in the 1950’s in the height of the cold war against what was considered the “un-godly” Soviet Union. The pros/cons of this discussion would constitute a separate blog and I do not want to bog down this blog concerning that topic.

What I’m proposing is that some additional pledges be added so that our Pledge of Allegiance can become more specific and more dynamic. My goal is to craft a statement that all Americans can recite providing a springboard to action.

So here are my additional pledges:

I pledge… sufficient funds for every un-wanted, un-loved, un-planned baby who is at risk of being aborted to receive enough food, clothing, shelter and education till he or she reaches age 21. This is what I define as the pro-life pledge. Failure to pledge tangible resources till the kid reaches adulthood is akin to bringing a non-swimmer half way across a river and then tossing him from the raft. Back up your words and beliefs with your time and money. Be as concerned and financially committed to the currently damaged and discarded humanity as you are with the unborn. Both are precious and equally in need of protection and nurturing.

I pledge…..every murder must be followed by a full day of remembrance by the entire community whether it’s the neighborhood within which the murder occurred or the entire city if the community is small enough. This day of remembrance must be more that the lighting of candles and the offering of thoughts and prayers. The day of remembrance must be a day of action supporting the family of the deceased. The pledge must end the cycle of violence and prevent inter-generational trauma. Only when the entire community turns out for an entire day (and hopefully beyond), will the expression “Enough Is Enough” be meaningful. Only with this pledge of a “community call to action” will there be a transition from a “crime story” to a “crime against the community”. There needs to be a sense that a crime against one of us is a crime against all of us. Sporting events in stadiums and massive entertainment venues are fine and fun. However, let’s pledge to devote the same level of enthusiasm, fandom and fanaticism in response to acts of hatred, violence and mayhem.

I pledge…..outrage for every act of violence no matter what the circumstances or who was the victim and perpetrator. I pledge to not cherry-pick crimes of violence and not tolerate “selective outrage”. For every incident of violence caused by an illegal immigrant, pledge to report incidents committed by USA citizens. For every incident of police brutality, be equally upset by crimes perpetrated by repeat offenders. Give equal time and attention to rioters whether they be looters, insurrectionists, violent protesters or radicals of the far left or far right or anywhere in between. For every person killed by a drunk driver, impaired driver, distracted driver or road rage warrior, let there be a driver who has permanently lost the privilege of driving. For every violent street crime and welfare cheater, let there be equal outrage calling out every white-collar criminal who steals millions.

I pledge….no child be allowed to graduate from high school without being able to read, write and do arithmetic. I pledge to do whatever tutoring and mentoring is required to achieve this basic competency of reading, writing and arithmetic. I pledge that zip code addresses should not dictate the quality of education received.

I pledge…..to protect every child from bullying whether it’s physically or digitally. This pledge includes protection of every person from becoming a victim of crime, particularly violent crime. I pledge to not look the other way, to not remain silent and to do whatever it takes to protect others from being victimized. I pledge to be my brother’s keeper making the phrase “it takes a village” more than just a phrase.

I pledge…..to never remain silent in the face of hateful, racist behavior in speech and action. I pledge to never patronize any hateful, racist, homophobic business. This includes any outright lies.

I pledge……to never allow a person to lose their home or business just because they got sick. Likewise, nobody should be in debt for life just because they attended college.

As you might have guessed by now, all of the above listed pledges are intended to back up words, announcements, and vague platitudes with specific calls to action. These are pledges that if repeated every day by everybody, we might inch closer to tackling seemingly intractable problems. As the saying goes, actions speak louder than words.

What other pledges would you suggest for making us a “more perfect union” and a better society?

History & Ancestry Repeating Themselves

Everybodys familiar with the expression “history repeats itself” but I noticed that this also applied to ancestry.

On my maternal side of the family (Coynes originally from County Mayo Ireland) the following patterns were observed:

Grandparent Patrick Coyne and other relatives worked in coal mines in the midlands of England. I worked two summers in a rock quarry (strip mining of feldspar) in Middletown CT paying for college. I’ve been told that Patrick Coyne worked double shifts in the mine giving his exta pay to his ill brothers family since jolly old England wasn’t so jolly with no financial safety net. Thankfully I did not experience such dire circumstances in the USA. However, I have done my share of double shifts during my 30 years working weekends as a security guard helping to pay bills to stay above the financial water line here in jolly old USA.

Rumor has it that grand dad Patrick Coyne had to leave Ireland in a hurry in early 1900’s since British authorities were hunting for IRA members and sympathizers. Again, my circumstances have not been so dire. However, depending upon the turn of events, circumstances and storm clouds swirling in the USA, maybe having options and alterntives might be advisable.

My mother watched every presidential nomination convention. It might have to do with the fact that she had the opportunity to attend the convention in Philly when Harry Truman was nominated. Fast forward to today when my tv channel is set to C-Span, Washington Journal, History Channel, Book TV and various other think tank, wonky discussion channels. Like her, I’m a self described news, history, and politics junkie.

Late at night my mother wrote and submitted articles to Readers Digest. I published a novel titled Mall Child and I’m an avid blogger, writer.

Two of my uncles were affiliated with the Providence RI police department (one on the beat and the other in the office). A cousin is a retired District Attorney. I dabbled with cop and criminal justice careers never fully taking that plunge. However, I was an auxiliary cop in Norwalk CT and a Volunteer In Probation during intermittent stints in the 1980s. I logged over 15 years working weekends as a mall cop in Trumbull CT so I remained on the fringe of that career path.

My mother worked for the CT Labor Department in Middletown and in their Wethersfield headquarters as an Employment Counselor striving to get persons employed. Guess what my last job was before I retired? Employment Counselor at Laurel House in Stamford CT doing largely the same thing. I didn’t plan this career scenario. It just happened.

On my paternal side of the family (the Dunn’s originally from Ireland specific county of origin unknown) the following patterns were observed:

Dunn ancestors migrated to central Connecticut (Portland, Middletown, Middlefield ) getting their working start in the brownstone rock quarries of Portland in the 1840’s (so they fortunately were pre-famine Irish immigrants). Fast forward to me working in the feldspar rock quarry of Middletown during summers in the 1970s. Even more ironically, I worked in the Portland quarry erecting fencing and even took a swim in the quarry on one of those hot summer days. Now the Portland site is converted to a nature/adventure park complete with a zip line over the water in that closed quarry.

My dad worked over 30 years (mostly on the midnight shift) patrolling the campus of Wesleyan University in Middletown CT as a campus cop. He had a front row seat to the Vietnam war protests, building take overs, and the firebombing of the Malcom X House. He lamented the increasing level of rowdyness and destructiveness of students particularly during spring break. He also saw his share of tragedies among students including mental breakdowns and a suicide. He opted for retirement in his sixties after e confronting a burglar in the campus bookstore. He was unarmed and the burglar fled (thankfully). As a mall cop, I had no where near the level of intense experiences that my dad encountered and that includes seeing action in the Pacific front during WW2. However, I found myself immersed in some mini-riots when kids run wild especially on the day after Christmas fueled by social media, boredom, disrespect and moral decay. I too was first to arrive at a suicide scene. I too decided to retire in my sixties when a shoplifting incident went wild with a victim straddled the hood of the suspects car. The vehicle barrelled head-on in the direction of my security vehicle. Thankfully this game of vehicular chicken was averted at the last second. The victim slid off the hood without being injured and the suspect exited the property without further incident. Like my dad many years before, that’s when I decided to turn in my service belt.

My dad and I both shared an aversion to mathmatics and mechanics. Crunching numbers and fixing stuff was not our forte.

What we do share is a receeding hair line and baulding scalp. That’s why I found my most reassuring, consoling voice when my oldest son who is approaching age 30 observed that his hair is thinning and his hair line is receeding.

I gently reminded him that “history and ancestry” repeats itself. Understant it and do not fear it.

Reimagining Careers…Reimagining Society

**Think outside the box in careers, life, society**

I retired recently and for that I’m happy

I’ve had time to contemplate jobs, careers, and life experiences

It’s got me re-thinking the following careers: cops, teachers, social workers.

Why these careers?

Because they generally parallel my jobs/careers since I’ve been employed as the following: mall cop, auxiliary cop, student teacher, after-school program coordinator, community organizer, bureaucrat, grant writer and advocate for affordable housing, economic development and mental health (just to name a few).

I’ve had the opportunity to work with amazing people pursuing noble endeavors. However, in retrospect, I’m experiencing the following emotions:

Tiredness and frustration

A gnawing sense of untapped potential and wasted time

A lack of “return-on-investment” ROI and productivity. The phrase “the hurrier I go, the behinder I get” keeps coming to mind.

So I’m re-thinking careers in the fields of criminal justice, education and social work/community development. I present the following considerations:

Infuse each of these jobs (cop, teacher, social worker/organizer/advocate) with a focus upon being a mentor & life coach who has the tools and flexibility to actually make a difference in the mission of their job descrptions. In sum, I advocate more person-centric rather than program-centric in these professions.

Consider some practical applications of this shift in focus:

Cops:

Less cruising around with a vague sense of preventing crime. Work more directly one-on-one with members of the community who have a documented history of anti-social behavior and present the greatest risk to society. Ask any chief of police and he/she will tell you that it’s a comparatively small percentage of the community (even in large urban areas) that have the greatest liklihood of continued criminal activity. From my own experience as a mall cop, I was always on the lookout for criminal activity but it was always reactive. Many a disorderly youth was escorted from the mall and many of them were repeat offenders who got into fights every weekend. Wouldn’t time and resources be better spent getting to the root causes of why they fight and shoplift?

Teachers:

Less lecturing and classroom management and more one-on-one tutoring of students sharing the teachers affinity for the subject. Follow the mantra “when the student is ready to learn, the teacher can teach”. Less teaching for the test and more nurturing of lifetime learners who can think critically and analytically. Figure out what is blocking the students learning and coach them to fulfill their highest potential in the subject. Using myself as an example, I could have mastered mathematics if only I had a math sherpa helping me climb up that math mountain. Instead, I was always that kid stuck in chapter 1 while the other kids were in chapter 3. Likewise, history and social studies always came easy to me and I would love the opportunity to unlock the joy of history/social studies for the student who was overwhelmed. But that’s impossible in a large class setting where maintenance of order takes prescedence over mastery of subject. Lastly, mentoring/coaching format is more conducive to experiential, hands on learning that the lecture, reading feedback loop.

Social workers/community organizers & advocates:

Addictions persist, overdoses happen, clients fall-thru-the-cracks, poverty cycles remain unbroken, crime continues, neighborhoods & cities continue to wallow in blight, decline and distress despite valient but ineffective uplifting endeavors and well meaning polcies.

So what’s missing?

The one-on-one, person-to-person, get-to-the-root-of-the-problem channelling of time, energy and resources. As described concerning the afore mentioned careers, focus on the person rather than formulating policy. Incentives for improvements and changing of circumstances are important but what is more important is taking that fundamental first step to determine if there is a willingness to change. This applies to persons, families, neighborhoods, cities, states and the nation. Programs, incentives and marketing campaigns without a genuine desire to change are doomed to fail. I recall the times I led neighborhood clean ups only to wake up to litter filled streets the next day. I managed after school programs in public housing sites that benefitted the participants but the long term impact was overwhelmed by rising crime rates and apathy. I coordinated commercial improvement marketing campaigns overshadowed by much larger forces of economic decline. It’s been my experience that unless every endeavor and every initiative is fueled by a sincere trust between the mentor/coach and the recipient, the results fall short of objectives and longevity is lacking. I applaud news announcements of well intentioned community efforts be they soup kitchens, coat collections etc. but I’m perplexed by how there seems to be no comprehensive, long-term sustained advancement. It intrigues me how a military campaign would never be waged on such a scatter shot format.

For this reimagining of careers and service delivery to be truly effective and rewarding for both providers and recipients, the following must be in place:

Trust & Integrity

Everyone must feel that everyones best interests are at stake. One-on-one mentorship with plenty of time and energy expended by all participants is the most cost-effective path to measurable results. This re-definition requires an all-in, full-court-press approach and not the usual half hearted, Monday thru Friday, press conference followed by radio silence approach. Everyone in the relationships (be they the cops-criminals, teachers-students, social workers-clients) must know that they “have-eachothers-backs”.

Accountability & Consequences

Those who provide the services and implement the programs designed to fulfill the missions of their respective careers must be held accountable. Likewise, the receivers of services and the beneficiaries of programs must be accountable. There must be consequences for their actions (or their failure to act). There must be room for stumbling but there also must be a recognition of the point at which “good-money-after-bad” has created a financial/energy sinkhole. We must be alert to the danger of the “sunken cost syndrome” trap in which we keep funding and exerting energy in the hopes of achieving a better outcome. Everyone must be clear eyed about the reality for the need for mandates when cajoling, suggesting and recommending fails to result in an acceptable return-on-investment in resources, time and enegy. In a worst case scenario, if there is a potential for harm to oneself, others or the community at large, we should not shrink from mandating behaviors. In the carrot/stick equilibrium, the “carrot” is the re-orientation to a mentoring/coaching format. However, it will be for naught if there is no “stick” component when required by the circumstances. Those circumstances might include, for example, repeated absences, violations, fraudulent or disruptive behavior or in worst case scenarios danger of harm to self or others.

Flexibility with Reasonable Oversight

If the careers in law enforcement/criminal justice (including probation and parole officers), education (including teachers & counselors) and social workers (including all sorts of counselors) were to shift into mentorship-coaching person-centered roles, it will require recruitment of persons to these professions who are oriented to this approach. In the long run, this reorientation will bolster recruitment and retention in these fields because the employees will derive a greater sense of satisfaction and fulfillment knowing they truly are “making a difference”. Greater flexibility will require heightened oversight to insure that workers entrusted to work on a more personal and programmically fluid basis are held accountable to ethics and accomplishments. The oversight can not be the cumbersome “bean counting” record keeping that accompanies traditional program administration. That said, but there must be independent transparency and oversight to keep everyone honest and protected.

I hope that my reflections offer some fresh perspectives concerning careers that, in my opinion, are way overdue for an overhaul.

Why:

We can’t keep doing things the same way and expecting different results

Just hiring more cops, more teachers and more social workers will not magically cause better results. The day has come when we can not afford to do this.

Recruitment and retention in these fields will only become more challenging unless the format and the culture of these careers change. In the longer run, the candidates for these jobs and the criterias by which we measure success needs to upgrade. Employees in these fields will be less likely to be trapped in the “golden cufflinks” syndrome awaiting the date when they have logged enough years to retire. Employees in these fields will transition from the treadmill of generating reports to more anecdotal, measurable, rewarding success stories of the persons they have assisted during this short time on earth.

And when all of us look back on our life’s journey….isn’t that the only thing that really counts?

In Search Of A Political Walking Partner

**Familarity breeds compatibility (hoperfully)**

As we enter 2024 and the dreaded national election in November, I’ve been intrigued with the idea of walking up and down the Main Street of my town wearing a Biden shirt with someone who is wearing a Trump shirt. Presumably Biden and Trump will be the candidates. Whomever secures the Democratic and Rebublican nominations, my offer to stroll with a member of the opposition party remains on-the-table.

What prompted me to suggest this stroll among odd-bedfellows?

Way back when Obama was running, I had an Obama bumper sticker on my old Pontiac Montana. I was driving the speed limit in the middle lane of the interstate on the way to work. A guy in a beat up sedan sped past me in the fast lane giving me the the finger and yelled something. I knew I had not cut him off and I wasn’t driving too slow. Then I spotted some sort of right-wing, angry, love-it-or-leave-it, anti-socialist, anti-progressive bumper sticker on his vehicle. The experience triggered the following flurry of emotions and observations:

Here we are two working class guys slepping to work in our clunkers. We should be on the same page but obviously not. I imagine that he has experienced setbacks in his life. I have experienced my own set of setbacks. And yet, he has an insane animosity for me and my American right to express my preference for who should be president. It makes me wonder the patriotism of this self-appointed patriot.

What gives him the right and sense of entitlement to denigrate my choice of a candidate? What’s his purpose? What’s his end goal? Does he want to change my mind? Scare or anger me? If any of these outcomes were his goal, he failed miserably.

I smiled to myself thinking about how he thinks he is so patriotic and proud of his opinion when there are so many countris where such an outbust would result in a beating at best and his execution at worst. I’m glad to be in America and proud of the USA and only ask others to express their opinions in a more civil manor.

Fast forward a couple of years and I was campaigning for a woman who was running on the Democratic ticket for the state legislature. In those days I was commuting by bike to the train station. I rigged up a campaign sign on the back of my backpack and I’m pleased to note I did not experience any distastefull or threatening incidents on the road or on the train. On weekends, my son and I waved campaign signs at a busy intersection. We received some angry stares and some obnoxious hoots but nothing veering into the threatening category. A cop announced on his car loud speaker that we had to move along because the bridge we were standing on was state property so as good citizens we complied. In another country and under different circumstances, a brush with authority might result in our disapearance. For this I am proud to be an American, glad to be an American and I’m resolved to NEVER let circumstances in this nation silence me from expressing my opinion or supporting the candidate of my choice.

I’m still interested in throwing a campaign sign on my back and engaging in some Biking For Biden. I’m still in good shape, so biking and hiking are my passions. I’m now retired so I have time to do it. However, I’ve gotten more cautious and I have a gnawing feeling that I might get run off the road by some patriotic fanatic who so rabidly supports his candidate that my life means nothing to him. Look no further than the death of Heather Hire at the right-wing, fascist, anti-semitic rally in North Carolina a few years ago and the violence of the insurectionist that attacked the police guarding the U.S. Capitol on January 6th. This concerns me and deeply saddens me that our democratic country (small “d”, not the political party) has become so polarized that there is fear of physical retribution for the peaceful, civic expression of opinions. I’m a baby boomer so I’m too young to have experienced Germany of 1939 but I’m getting an uneasy sense of what that must have been like. And we can NEVER let that happen here.

The talk of polarization, alienation and lonliness is everywhere and it’s well documented. I had the good fortune to have worked with a variety of persons in a wide range of fields that included public housing, city planning, economic development, community development and mental health just to name a few. I’m even a retired mall cop so I’ve experienced people at their best and worst. I’ve lived in all sorts of circumstances and neighborhoods from rooming houses to apartments to condos and all sorts of neighborhoods. I’ve gotten to know persons when I walk the campaign trail with them, created neighborhood improvement associations and managerd after-school programs . My experience has been that the more time I spend with others and the more overlapping of experiences I have with others, the better the understanding.

So here’s my proposal :

Team up with a political walking partner so we can exchange thoughts, philosophies, experiences and spend time with eachother. In sum, get to know eachother and realize that we are not really all that differend. At the very least, get some exercise. Deep down, I hope we have the same goals regarding our families, our safety, and our love of country.

But there are some strings attached and conditions that must be met. I have NO interest in walking with any member of the opposite party who espouses the folowing:

Denial that Biden did not win the 2020 election

Denial that the January 6th insurectionists (rioters) were insurectionists/rioters

Denial that any woman can obtain an abortion if her health is in jeopardy or she is pregant because of rape or incest.

That said….I CAN walk with someone of the opposite party if we share concerns and opinions about the following:

Both seek to end waste, bureaucracy, incompetency in government and programs. Both seek positive returns-on-investments and support only economic development initiatives with viable economic engines

Both seek responsibility and accountability whether that is personal responsibility or governmental responsibility

Both seek a reasonable solution to the border crisis that does not involve separating families and caging children

Both seek to remove violent felony criminals from society and eliminate repeat offender revolving door syndrome

Both seek reasonable gun regulation such as background checks, red-flag laws and meaningful mental health supports

Both agree that nobody should be allowed to freeze or starve in our society and we need to agree as to how to make sure this does not happen. Both must agree that nobody can go bankrupt and loose their house just because they got sick.

I would love to know what are the conditions that my walking partner requires of me. What do I stand for and what is it about me that is so offensive and intolerable that they would decline the opportunity to walk with me?

One thing I think we both could certainly agree upon is the fact that there needs to be sidewalks along the length of our stroll along our Main Street. There are sections that are downright dangerous with no shoulder for pedestrians to walk without getting struck by a vehicle. I guess it’s true when they say “all politics is local” and it doesn’t get more local that sidewalks on Main Street.

If I can’t find a walking partner and the trepidation about expressing my opinoins and publicly supporting my candidate continues to escalate… god help us all and 1939 Germany here we come.

The Golden Rule…Silver Bullet To Common Ground & Peace Around The World (and at the dinner table)

In response to ongoing international crisis’s (Mid-East, Ukraine, etc.), religious animosities, domestic polarization AND a long conversation I had with a family member, we boiled everything down to The Golden Rule as being the North Star. We decided that it’s a workable common denominator for a pathway out of the forrest of hate that we seem to be lost in.

That said, we agreed that there are some circumstances when application of The Golden Rule will be bumpy at best and impossible at worst. Those situations are when moral values and deeply entrenched beliefs distort what should be uniform implementation of The Golden Rule

Examples:

The pro-life vs. pro-choice debate. The Golden Rule only works when each side operates in somewhat of a Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) mode. To express it more bluntly, I may want to punch you but I also don’t want to be on the receiving end of your punch. Therefore, we both refrain from punching. This equilibium breaks down in the debate arena on matters such as pro-life vs. pro-choice.

The same break down occurs in other debates where morality, beliefs, religion, blind patriotism, cultish indoctrination, misinformation, indoctrination and good old fashioned hatred, prejudice and racism all cloud what should be the clear eyed logic of The Golden Rule. If either side in the Golden Rule equation suffers from blurred vision (like a person who has cataracts), the rule falls short.

Topics such as capital punishment, assisted suicide/right-to-die, and even the gun rights/restrictions debates do not fit neatly in the Golden Rule equation.

Despite the afore mentioned limitations, The Golden Rule remains important in its simplicity. It lacks the complexity of the bible, the tora, the quoran and the US tax code (well maybe that document doesn’t belong mixed in with these documents). Also, in the midst of any heated argument, whether it’s between family members, irate drivers, poitical parties or even nations, The Golden Rule can act as a “time out” when the conflicting parties can take a deep breath and reassess if this really is the path they want to follow. Unfortunately, The Golden Rule will fall flat for those who are hell bent on breaking it due to whatever distorted visions, motivations and beliefs drive them.

The bottom line…keep The Golden Rule for its beautiful simplicity and its applicability to most of lifes situations. It serves as a sound-bite conscience for most of us who have a conscience. However, be aware that not everybody plays by the rules or they twist the rules to fit their circumstances.

Exceptionalism

For the record and to be very clear….I’m as patriotic as the next guy. I’m deeply thankfull for having been born in the USA and not in some god forsaken place where there are no freedoms, no rule of law and constant threat of warlords and dictators.

That said, I’m increasingly uncomfortable with the increasing reference to American Exceptionalism. It’s not that we are not exceptional in many ways. However, I wonder how the drum beat of this phrase plays with citizens of other nations.

Let’s start with those countries similar to the USA (rule of law, freedoms, democratic systems, strong economies, etc).

I’m thinking that Canadiens, Scandanaviens, most Europeans, etc. must be thinking that they are “exceptional” and wonder why the USA seems to think it has cornered the market on exceptionalism.

Let’s move to the countries that are not within our “friend group”. I’m speaking here of Russia and China (for example). Though I do not support their systems of government, and their policies, you have to admit that those societies and cultures have survived tremendous upheavals. Just consider the wars, famines, revolutions and plagues from which they have survived and are still strong contenders in the boxing ring of nations. Their citizenry must consider themselves to be “exceptional”.

Let’s move to the Third World nations. The most downtrodden, disadvantaged and troubled. Their very existance would be considered among their citizenry as being exceptional. The nation of Haiti is a prime example. They were the first colonial nation to pull off a slave rebellion that shook off French control much to the consternation of the other slave controlled colonies. Haiti today (and throughout its history) contends with horiffic conditions but their origins as a nation could be described as exceptional.

And that brings me to an increasing disconnection to the olympics. Growing up I always watched the Wide World Of Sports on tv (showing my age) and always rooted for the USA (and still root for the red-white-blue). However, I’m now more inclined to watch olympic contests for the exceptional performances regardless of what country is being represented. Prime example of this would be any viewing of Usain Bolt as he blows past his running competitors. He is not a USA athelete but nobody can deny that his performance is exceptional. With all athletic contests (and contests in general), I’m increasingly queesy with that growing “high & mightly sentiment” in all conversations that “the other guy sucks”.

The counter weight to USA exceptionalism is the un-exceptional blemishes of both the past an present. We need look no farther than treatment of native Americans, slavery, Jim Crow, police brutality, un-exceptional schools, un-exceptional neighborhoods and I could go on and on. It pains me to do so and I regret unearthing this topic but it’s necessary to discuss exceptionalism with eyes wide open.

I hate to end this post on such a negative note…. so I won’t and here is why.

We have an opportunity to truly become exceptional if we buckle down and address the afore mentioned challenges. Then and only then will I feel comfortable shouting from the rooftop that WE ARE EXCEPTIONAL !

Ode to Mall Cops & Security Guards during September Appreciation Week

The general public comes and goes. So do mall cops and security guards.

Some guards stay for years, others work short stints & some are “no show”

Shifts start at sunrise, others at midnight. Double shifts are common, especially if there are “no shows” or a spike in activity be that good (a concert) or bad (a riot).

Where are they now? What becomes of them?

Some start school, others return to school or find careers. Some just drift away to parts unknown

They come in all sizes, colors, cultures and hail from all backgrounds.

What unites them? Why do they do it?

To become filthy rich (not likely on a mall cop/security guard pay)
Become famous. Only if you do something really stupid or really heroic on a national scale and end up on the evening news.
Become a cop. A logical gateway to that noble profession.
Meet members of the opposite sex or just keep busy and stay out of trouble. Too much of the first item on this list and you are likely to get into some trouble.

Last but not least (and most likely)….it’s to pay bills.

But over time, it’s a sense of camaraderie, a sense of dedication, a sense of “all for one and one for all” (like the ancient knights of the Round Table in the days of King Arthur and Robin Hood’s band of merry men).

In the end, it’s an understanding that we have each others back in times of need. We’re generally an invisible afterthought to the busy public. That is until an alarm rings, a fight breaks out, smoke fills the air, a shot is fired or a bomb goes off. We suddenly become important and appreciated. When things settle down and get back to normal (whatever that is), we fade again into the background

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History Repeating Itself

Greg Dunn

3 min read

Just now

**Hell bent on the highway to hell back then. Are we on the same highway today?**

Full disclosure, I stopped reading Medium posts and writing posts since Story TV (sort of a variation of the History Channel, my other addiction) ran an entire day of programming concerning The Rise & Fall of The Roman Empire. Now I’m catching up.

What follows is my observations based upon binge watching. You probably already known these observations but my goal is to publish them, especially in advance of the 2024 national election:

Fact then: Roman empire got over extended. Battling forces on multiple fronts. Military overextended. Budget over extended. Loss of control at the extremities. Resentments and anxieties grow on all frontiers.

Fact now: same situation

Fact then: Corruption, infighting, polarization and internal tensions. Economic inequality, over-taxation, personal egoes and animosities trump the greater good of the nation and society

Fact now: same situation

Fact then: Roman leaders supporting pagan gods scapegoated the new christians especially when plagues threatened to destroy the society. Scapegoating the poorest, the politically weakest, those who look and speak differently. In sum, the easy targets. Bottom line, divide and conquer.

Fact now: same situation

Fact then: The roman empire cajoled, bribed, cut deals with the barbarians when they realized that barbarians had the upper hand as roman coffers were depleted and their military was overextended.

Fact now: we do the same. CIA conducts covert operations, State Department pays ransoms, cuts deals, Specal Ops launch surgical operations

Fact then: Romans had to utilize “auxillaries” who were basically mercinaries, unfortunate folks from conquered areas and the poor needing money opting for military service. Romans had a voluntary military service requiring creative ways of filling the ranks , especially when their rich and comfortable residents had no need or desire to join the military.

Fact today: We encourage our lowest income and working class residents to join the miliary on the promise that “their college debts will be forgiven”. Is it no coincidence that our exploding college debt coincides with out transfer to a volunteer only based military? We use mercinaries, so did the romans.

Fact then: Every military incursion was driven by the need for the emporor to establish a strong military resume. The roman empire did not need to expand as evidenced by their misguided incursion into the British Isles. Classic example of getting overextended.

Fact now: We got Saddam pushed out of Kuwait . Mission accomplished. So why did we have to re-invaded under Bush Jr. into Iraq?

Obama got Bin Laden, so why did we stay there many years afterwared?

Fact then: Romans considered themselves superior to those outside of the empire and more civilized than the barbarians. They used this rationale to justify expanded Roman territory. Romans threw their weight around when they were the superpower of that era.

Fact now: USA followed misguided policy of nation building, especially after the fall of the Soviet Union. USA constantly refers to exceptionalism and manifest destiny but doesn’t consider how that sounds to those outside of the USA.

Fact then: Romans revelled in blood sports with gladiators entertaining them in colosseums. General population became soft and complacent

Fact now: We have our stadiums and football games that have a sacraficial gladiator feel to them. Full disclosure, my guilty pleasure is watching football (American version) and rooting for my team (New England Patriots) but a gnawing sense of unease creeps into my consciousness. Like the Romans, our society is lulled into complacency and obesity as we gorge on entertainment watching our screens, playing our computer games and eating our chips.

Fact then: Romans were dragged down by plagues during the 300 years following the birth of Christ. They turned on eachother internally while barbarians attacked on all external fronts. The empire ran out of time, money, resources and the ability to cope with the death spiral it found itself in.

Fact now: I could go on and on with comparisons but I wanted to end with a glimmer of hope. We still have time to right this sinking ship but only if we steer away from the declining Roman Empire course. Only time, fortitude and courage will determine our fate.

Fall Of Rome

Decline Of Civilization

Political Polarization

Corruption

Decline Of America

Written by Greg Dunn

35 Followers

Boomer who’s a late bloomer to writing/blogging and loving it! Published novel MALL CHILD based on 15 years as weekend mall cop & 40 years as city planner

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Would You Rather Direct Traffic or Capture Monsters?

Greg Dunn

5 min read

Just now

If you were a cop, would you rather direct traffic at a construction site or put a bullet through the skull of a mass shooter about to kill a bunch of kids? When your shift ends and you hang up your service belt, which gives you a greater sense of accomplshment, appreciation and purpose?

When you said in 3rd grade that you wanted to be a cop, did you dream of aimlessly patrolling neighborhoods not sure of what nefarious character you were looking for? When you played cops & robbers the mission was clear: catch the bad guys. Why is that mission now so murky?

When I chatted with a buddy whose a retired cop, he commiserated that cops spend way too much time doing paperwork. Same observations are made by retired teachers who complain that record keeping has taken priority over teaching, which was their reason they entered the profession in the first place. Teachers frequently complain about teaching to the test rather than to the student. Social workers also complain about the revolving door syndrome processing reports concerning the same clients who are in their words “frequent fliers”. The clients participate in a variety of programs but never address root causes of their distressed state in life.

Back to my cop buddy and his angst about report writing, I suggested that filling out paperwork at scenes such as vandalism with minor property damage, might be handled by what I called Community Agents. I used the term “agent” because in these circumstances it’s more just an insurance claim matter. A uniformed Community Agent could be equipped with a panic button and a 2-way radio in case of emergency or an unforseen turn of events. A cop who’s already on patrol could be notified that the Community Agent was on-scene investigating some act of vandalism or even a minor fender bender just in case a benign situation escalated. The Community Agent could also be an extra set of eyes & ears in the community reporting suspicious activity or alarming trends.

My cop buddy liked the idea of being freed up from the drudgery of report writing. However, he was skeptical of the notion of giving up extra pay that comes with directing traffic at construction sites if cops were replaced with less costly flagmen. I also sensed some reticence about having non-cops whether they are Community Agents, social workers, outreach workers or citizen advisory/liasion members doing ride-alongs. Likewise, my retired teacher buddies were supportive of sending disruptive students to a specialist who could deal with root causes of disruptive behavior. However, as with the cops, I sensed some concerns and possibly some trust issues about having this extra helper in their classroom. For cops and teachers (and everybody for that matter), there is a fear of loosing control and being evaluated and possibly misunderstood. My answer to this understandable concern is to put in place oversight whereby the “helpers” really get to “help” and those who are being helped (the cops, teachers or whomever) are not being unjustly judged or spied upon. A side benefit to this re-structuring would be the weeding out of bad cops, bad teachers, bad employees of whatever the profession. Furthermore, this might lead to more cost effective delivery of services. Tax payers would benefit.

I appreciate these concerns and reluctance to change institutional cultures. However, we can not keep doing things the same way over and over and expect different results. More cops, more teachers, more social workers or more of whatever profession being discussed without fundamental changes will never dig us out of this hole.

Taking the afore mentioned baby steps might move us closer to revamping the definition of what it means to be a cop, teacher, social worker or whatever profession needs revamping. Maybe if we inch toward transitioning employees in the helping/social services fields to become mentors rather than straightjacketing them with outdated roles and titles, we might, in the long run, make these fields more rewarding. Coincidentally these are the fields experiencing severe recruitment and retention issues. There is concern that these fields are not attracting the best, the brightest and most importantly the most appropriate and most motivated. Cops will always be needed to break up bar fights, teachers will always need to teach reading-writing-arithmatic and social workers will always need to administer programs. That said, we should stop forcing these professionals to be “all things to all people”.

Some examples:

Cops: Contract with a “geek squad” to ferret out computer crimes, fraud, white collar crimes, hate speech, and other indicators that are precursers to a tragedy on the doorstep of the community. I support protections of civil liberties so we certainly still need to obtain warrants and show probabale cause if the case advances in the criminal justice system. However, every police chief will note that a very small percent of the community is the source of crime and disorder in any community. So why can’t we free up cops to become mentors to this limited group? It would be more cost effective to transition to what I call micro-policing. We used to call this Community Policing but I suggest taking it the next step to micro-policing. Furthermore, all too often Community Policing was relegated to a special unit having limited impact among the entire police department and sometimes (not always) just amounting to “window dressing” as a demonstration of community involvement. This same “window dressing” has unfortunately applied to compartmentalization with creation of Youth/School Resource Officers. We still need to have a limited (but sufficient) amount of resources devoted to addressing the “outsider” who’s passing thru town and causing trouble. More intensive video surveillance of the public streets would document whatever crime or accidents occur. Let the camera augment the conviction rates while the cops time is freed up mentoring and networking with those most in need of re-directing.

Teachers: Every teacher hopefully loves the subject they teach. Math for the mathmatician, history for the history buff, etc. If their time could be freed up so they can work more intensively with each student sharing their zest for the subject, wouldn’t that be a more productive teaching style. That would replace the “classroom management” that sucks up so much of a teachers time and energy. The phrase “when the student’s ready to learn, the teacher can teach” sums up this notion which only happens when the teacher is freed up for an intensive mentorship role.

Social workers and heath care professionals: Unless their time/energy is freed up enabling them to get to the root problems affecting their clients and patients, they will continue to busy themselves (and burn out) treating symptoms rather than addressing causes.

So back to my initial graphic question directed to cops: “Do you want to direct traffic of capture monsters?”

This question could be broadened to whatever profession that’s under the microscope. Depending upon the answer that’s given, it raises the further question “Is this really the right profession for you and what’s your true motivation?”

Written by Greg Dunn

27 Followers

Boomer who’s a late bloomer to writing/blogging and loving it! Published novel MALL CHILD based on 15 years as weekend mall cop & 40 years as city planner

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**It may count but how and where do we find you and how do we get you to vote**

I was inspired to write this blog because of that infamous conversation Trump had with the Georgia Secretary of State asking him to FIND votes. Actually “inspired” is probably the wrong word. “Repulsed” is a better fit. However, it got me to thinking…..Can I find 5 persons who I can convince to vote in support of my candidte in the 2024 election?

My answer: Other than finding 5 members of the BASE (and I’m not sure of who and where these folks are so I can approach them), I seriously doubt there are 5 persons who I can convince, convert, or motivate in time for November 2024.

This is why:

Extreemly polarized persons. Minds are made up.

Extreemly indecisive persons. They are forever fence sitters. (Tip: don’t stand behind them in line at the grocery store when the clerk ask “paper or plastic”, you will be there all day)

Extreemly disgusted, disgrunteled, disconnected and distrustfull persons. They are the folks that say things like ….”their all crooked”, “life’s a bitch and then you die”, “it’ll never change”, “the deck is stacked against us”.

Extreemly disinterested persons. They’re folks that say thinks like…”I don’t follow politics” or “that doesn’t concern me”. Getting these folks to vote would be like getting someone who hates broccli to try it. For the record, I’m ok with broccli.

And that brings me back to THE BASE. These are the persons who already support your candidate. We can count on the strong supporters to be voters. It’s those who are lackadasical that we need to make sure they get to the polls. For me, this is what the term “growing the base” means. Time, energy and resources spent on any of the other folks listed in this article might be wasted. The ROI (Return On Investement) concerning them is probably negligible. If we do not sufficiently identify and motivate this “silent majority” among THE BASE and turn them out in such significant numbers so that the opposition is trounced, the election and possibly our democracy is lost.

One last note, so I do not leave with the impression that I have given up on conversing and convincing others. I recently did some soul searching thinking about when was the last time I had a conversation or read or heard something in which I changed my mind or garnered a new perspective. For me it was reading the memoir of Sarah McBride (Titled: Tomorrow Will be Different: Love, Loss & the Fight For Trans Equality). I wanted to give her a shout-out because it provided me with an in-depth understanding and appreciation for issues affiliated with LGBTQ and Trans Persons.

I added this comment since it’s my observation that unless the person you are recruiting to vote in support of your candidate experiences some sort of epithamy, they are not budging from their opposition or their inertia. Since I’m a history buff always watching for the arc of history, I offer the following waatershed moments in USA history when THE BASE sufficiently expanded to enable a redirection of the course of history.

These moments/movements were:

Abolition and the end of slavery (though in many ways the civil war continues)

Suffraget movement…giving women the right to vote.

WW2….collective understanding that we had to crush Hitler and the Japanese emperor

The New Deal and the start of something called Social Security (granted it took The Great Depression for people to warm up to this idea)

The civil rights movement. End of Jim Crow, segregation, etc.

End of the Vietnam war. Recognition that it was time to leave

So what’s the WATERSHED moment we are living in right now? Are we in a watershed moment? I fear we are NOT at that inflection point. There I go again being a glass-half-empty guy. The existential threat posed by global warming is not yet garnering the urgency and collective action required for real change. Hell, the pandemic didn’t create societal solidarity since we continued to quibble about masking, opening/closing schools & businesses and debating the origins of the damed thing.

Oh well, I still support thinking globally and acting locally so I guess I will get busy searching for those 5 votes.

Politics

History

Social Commentary

Communications Strategy

Written by Greg Dunn

23 Followers

Boomer who’s a late bloomer to writing/blogging and loving it! Published novel MALL CHILD based on 15 years as weekend mall cop & 40 years as city planner

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