…know what? I’m gonna start waving to those in uniform when I pass them on the street. You know, Police, Firemen, Military, the Schwans guy. What every happened to that anyway? I’m not even old, and I remember being taught to wave to men in uniform, cause they are here to help us.
Post Script: This is a math joke:
Q: When did Bourbaki stop writing books?
A: When they realized that Serge Lang was a single person…
Can anybody explain this to me? Anybody???
3 Comments
“What ever happened to that anyway?” Rodney King happened. Daryl Hunt happened. The Greensboro Massacre happened. Hundreds of lynchings sanctioned by local police happened.
Police are being militarized at a frightening rate and here in North Carolina (and around the country) they are being used as INS agents to deport undocumented immigrants. The Norman Rockwell painting tells a lie of the myth of White (supremacy) utopia. So, while the myth that the police are here to help might be true for the little white boy, it’s not (always/often) true the little black or brown boy.
Still, there is something in us that yearns for that kind of community where everyone feels safe, where police can be respected and relationships are honored. There is something in that yearning that is good, but let’s be sure that our (myth of) safety is not predicated on the oppression and exclusion of others.
Here are a couple of sites to check out:
http://www.innocenceproject.org http://www.ncoct22.org and http://www.gtcrp.org (I’ve been working with the latter).
Peace to you friend,
Kyle
Oh Kyle,
I can always count on you to hold sharp my loose tongue, and make me thing about things that I otherwise would not.
And while there was some sarcasm in my post (I don’t actually wave and all cops, but I have a few times…and I just get sneered at like I must be doing something illegal), I can’t disagree with you on the oppressive role the police have and are playing if you’re not white and suburban (which I am, so I take it for granted, and I wave).
I look forward to checking out those sites. Thanks for keeping it real.
-Craig
Maybe there is no actual place called hell Maybe hell is just having to listen to our grandparents breathe through their noses when they’re eating sandwiches — Jim Carrey
Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible. Lord Kelvin, president, Royal Society, 1895.
A fast word about oral contraception I asked a girl to go to bed with me, she said ‘no’ — Woody Allen
Is it not a strange blindness on our part to teach publicly the techniques of warfare and to reward with medals those who prove to be the most adroit killers? — Marquis de Sade