Hasta La Gadget!

The evidence released regarding the shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri shows that most of the eyewitness accounts of what happened contradict each other. They mostly follow one of two scenarios:

1. Brown was yet another innocent black victim of a racist and trigger-happy white police officer.

2. Wilson was a beleaguered police officer forced to shoot Brown based solely on Brown’s actions.

According to the grand jury that chose not to indict Darren Wilson, his account, choice #2 here, was the one that was best supported by physical evidence, so they chose not to indict based on that account. Some other accounts described Brown shot while fleeing with hands up as he ran from a murderous white officer. While this depiction may or may not be factually accurate, it is an apt metaphor for where we are with race relations today. On the day of the grand jury announcement, President Obama said, “The fact is, in too many parts of this country, a deep distrust exists between law enforcement and communities of color.” Because the Brown as victim story fits better with the big picture of race today, eyewitness distortions of detail have skewed toward that narrative.

All people seek to understand the world around them and their place in it. One of the ways we do it is that, once we find something that works, we start to spread the word among our contemporaries, and to pass it down to our progeny. When effective and necessary life lessons are shared widely within a community, they follow one of two basic formats.

One is technical and instruction-based, formatted like a recipe or directions for assembling an Ikea bookshelf. Speed limit is a good example. There is not literally a speed limit of 55 miles per hour anywhere. You can go faster. But, we have accepted it and we agree with our neighbors that speed is to be limited. It informs, like a code, without characters and without narrative. This format is always created with intention to communicate something specific.

The other, more popular format for conveying truths within a community is via highly accessible story and metaphor. This is mythology. It can come to life intentionally, as when an author writes a novel; or unintentionally, as we are seeing happen in Ferguson.

In yoga philosophy, the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali follow the technical, non-fictional format. The sutras are short statements about how things are and what humans can do to make things feel better. A typical statement in the sutras is, “Future suffering is to be avoided.” That statement is the lesson. In this case, the instruction informs part of a practice, and the practice itself gives insight into the experience and origins of suffering, which teaches how to avoid future suffering. This format works when the instructions inform a practice that teaches necessary lessons.

While an instruction-based format lends itself toward precision in detail, and allows for wider interpretation, it is not very juicy as a relic to be shared. That is why there is another, more popular way to teach and learn life lessons: with a living, breathing mythology.

The collected life lessons that are taught via story constitute a community’s mythology. In contrast to the dry and technical Yoga Sutras, India has the much more popular Bhagavad Gita, an epic with a huge cast of characters and a lot of drama. The Gita teaches the same lessons as the Yoga Sutras, but it does so like a movie does- by inviting imaginary participation in a narrative. But, mythology isn’t reserved for the East, and it’s found far outside of anything that looks like religion. Mythology happens in all human cultures at all times. Many of us learned that slow and steady wins the race by hearing about a steadfast tortoise and a procrastinating hare.

The main difference between teaching with instructions like the sutras and teaching with stories like the tortoise and the hare is not that one is fiction and one isn’t. The details are almost irrelevant. Instead of relying on historical accuracy to teach, myth teaches by adjusting details as needed in order to generate certain feelings in the listener. Hearing the tortoise and the hare story evokes what I would feel if I squandered my resources and ended up failing when I could have easily succeeded. If I were to simply read the instruction: “Slow and steady effort is better long-term than periodic bursts of effort are”, I would be less interested because it is harder for me to place myself in it.

American mythology expresses American ideals with accounts of Paul Revere’s midnight ride and, more recently with many of the events that happened September 11, 2001. September 11 really did happen, and there is really only one accurate way to recount the events. Yet, the facts have been re-packaged, distorted and exaggerated to support certain archetypes, sometimes in ways that highly contradict each other. Each of these iterations of the story is a myth that works for the community that generated it and propagates it.

One of the ways that myth is created is that a story is found to express a necessary solution to the problem of the day. The late mythologist Joseph Campbell wrote that a function of myth is to “support the current social order, to integrate the individual organically with his group”. (Footnote: Campbell, Joseph (1991). Occidental Mythology. Arkana. p. 520. ISBN 0-14-019441-X.) When we settle the remembered details of Ferguson with a bent toward supporting the narrative of racial injustice, we are participating in euhemerism, the process of distorting the account of a real event so that a certain viewpoint is expressed. While such myth creation can happen intentionally, it more likely develops slowly and organically as little details change over time to better illustrate whatever point is at hand. And because it has happened organically in almost every culture since the beginning of time, it is probably safe to assume that is is necessary and effective. What is necessary now, and what will happen whether we mean to do it or not, is to shape the mythology that moves society toward racial harmony.

Which is really true: what actually happened or what you remembered? Did Michael Brown die as a victim of a racist system or did Darren Wilson shoot as a last resort to defend himself?

Both stories are true in the sense that they are both based on real things that are actually happening. In the U.S., skin color is statistically a major determining factor in whether or not a white police officer shoots you unnecessarily. And, it’s certainly very difficult to make life and death decisions as quickly as police officers do.

No matter what happened in Ferguson, the story that lasts will be the one that describes Brown as a victim. That is because it describes a more problematic pattern than the story of how hard it is to be a police officer. It is an officer’s job to do difficult things. It is not the job of color to determine quality of life.

And, if this Ferguson story isn’t the one that continues to teach into the coming centuries, another one will. Just as the myth of the American dream was born to teach that hard work nets material wealth, we are experiencing the birth of a shared vision of an America that is powerfully and overtly racist. The stories about race that are going to take root and inspire positive action will be the ones that describe how racial inequality goes against our ideal of a fair social order, and that resolving those issues is necessary for us to live with integrity. And that may bring some harmony to our culture, which is what mythology is for.

We need stories, even those that aren’t true. Maybe the Ferguson story will be the one that is told the longest- maybe it won’t. But, it is, if only temporarily, expressing and evoking feelings of injustice that will inspire the actions that the race problem needs. The Ferguson eyewitness accounts, true or not, are a part of our current race mythology. And they were told earnestly to describe real things- even if those real things weren’t specifically why Darren Wilson shot Michael Brown.

For the grand jury, accuracy matters. The grand jury did their best to make a decision based on actual fact. But the direction that this culture moves is based on how we collectively view the world — whether it’s accurate or not. Finally, the majority of the public seems to see that American racism is prevalent and damaging. So, even if it’s not remembrances of Brown’s tragic death that motivate action in the future, some story, whether factual or not, will.

An important duty of any law enforcement professional is to prioritize the safety of the public over that of his or her self, which is precisely the sacrifice for which we owe our officers immense respect and gratitude. Their selfless commitment to protect and serve our communities warrants praise and commendation, without question.

Unfortunately, it is becoming evident that police agencies are instead implicitly prioritizing their own safety over that of the public, and they justify this trend by citing heightened threat levels on the job. This reorganization of priorities is implied by a passive but evident willingness to increase their protection and firepower at the cost of civil liberty and comfort.

Police militarization is in and of itself an escalation of sorts; when confronted by a police force that is armed with and protected by military grade equipment, a reasonable person will likely perceive himself to be under immediate threat of physical violence. Therefore he will be more likely to reciprocate, resulting in increased aggression by both parties whether that manifests passively (police intimidation) or physically (hurling rocks at a line of police). It is by no means an imaginative stretch to say that the chances of a peaceful protest becoming violent increase dramatically if the assembly is approached or contained by an intimidating and imposing police presence.

Unnecessarily subjecting our police to harm is also ill-advised, but we should pay careful attention to the balance between their safety and the degree to which their presence hinders individual and collective liberty. Even if any perceived assault on liberty is wholly unintended, it is nonetheless unwarranted and unjust.

My critique of police convention is not to trivialize the issue of the structural racism evident in Ferguson and which is pervasive across our justice system. Contrarily, the issue of the militarization of law enforcement directly contributes to and perpetuates this unfair system since the burden of militarization most often rests on the shoulders of underprivileged minority groups. For comparison, consider this year’s Pumpkin Festival at Keene State, which largely devolved into a destructive riot, and how the police response was relatively subdued.

In the aforementioned example, it could be argued that a reduced perception of threat could have driven the relatively amicable police response. This line of thinking alone is indicative of the inequality prevalent in our society. It suggests that those we have entrusted with the safekeeping of our communities have themselves become agents of racial and class division, and that their understanding of institutionalized privilege and oppressive power structures is largely nonexistent.

Though it is easy to believe that such subjectivity is warranted and possibly even a best practice for the protection of our law enforcement officers, placing the safety of a police force over the safety of the community is a dangerous line to cross in the context of a supposedly free and progressive nation. How can we expect subjective law enforcement conventions to establish and maintain an objective peace in our marginalized communities if they themselves perpetuate the structural violence that affects these communities?

Furthermore, we cannot readily expect communities that receive privileged treatment from law enforcement agencies to denounce, acknowledge, or even understand the impacts of inherently racist police practices, their ignorance a result of their own advantaged realities. Such existential distance diminishes the power of compassion to rally our ally communities in support of the less fortunate.

Will a less intimidating police presence fix our problems? No. But it will be a lot easier to support our officers when we don’t see them as being catalysts of the very violence they are employed to suppress.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A high school principal at the U.S. Osan Air Base in South Korea said Monday that officials locked down the school and base as a precaution after someone reported an unscheduled “active shooter drill.”

Morgan Nugent, principal of Osan American High School, said in a posting on the base’s official Facebook site that officials “decided to error on the side of safety” and lock the school down after a teacher received what sounded like an automated call saying there was “an active shooter drill taking place.” There was no such drill scheduled Monday.

Nugent said security forces were sweeping the school and its perimeter and he would restart school once given an “all clear.”

People on the base had been told to stay in their quarters or workplaces until further notice, according to Tech. Sgt. Stacy Foster, a spokesman at Osan. He had no other details.

Osan Air Base is located south of Seoul. About 28,500 U.S. troops are stationed in South Korea as a deterrent to North Korea, whose 1950 attack started the Korean War.

Osan is the headquarters of the U.S. air forces in South Korea, the 7th Air Force. The base is also home to the 7th Air Forces’ 51st Fighter Wing. About 7,500 to 8,000 U.S. troops, civilian employees and their family members live and work on base, according to the base’s public affairs office.

The presence of the U.S. troops and annual U.S.-South Korean war drills are a continuing point of contention with North Korea, which claims that they are signs of hostility and designs at invading the North.

“When are you going to do something about it?,” her daughter cried to her mother after seeing her hit by her boyfriend, yet again. And this time, her mother finally did.

“I knew when I saw my daughter crying to me on the living room rug that I not only had to do something for myself, but also for her,” said Ellen Elizabeth Lee, her eyes welling up with tears as she addressed a filled ballroom at New York City’s Plaza Hotel on November 17th. As one of this year’s recipients of an education fellowship from the Education Fund of the Women’s Forum of New York, a leadership organization of New York’s preeminent female leaders in every professional sector, its president, Ami Kaplan, also took to the podium to reiterate the Fund’s founding mission to give women a second chance to realize their potential. “It is our way of giving back while building new women leaders,” she said.

And so it has. The Women’s Forum, which was first established by activist Elinor Guggenheimer to improve the lives of women far less fortunate than she, created The Education Fund in 1987 to provide annual awards to encourage mature women in need (age 35+) to fulfill their potential through the pursuit of an undergraduate college education and to enhance their capacities to provide productive and supportive service to their communities. Specifically, the award recognizes extraordinary and often heroic effort in overcoming adversity and the most daunting of odds in restructuring their lives for success. “We help high potential women who have overcome serious hardships realize their dreams,” added Beverly Beaudoin, president of the Education Fund.

And this year’s awardees can certainly attest to that. “I really reached rock bottom as a teenager,” said Sophie Miyashiro, another award recipient. “I had to escape my home. It became a matter of life or death,” she continued. “So, in the middle of diapers and desperation, and with only two dollars in my pocket, The Education Fund enabled me to go back to school. It wasn’t easy since my classmates are 20 years younger than I, but I now have a 4.0 GPA. Having been validated by the Education Fund has been so incredibly empowering.”

Yet another awardee spoke of how she grew up in the inner cities of Jamaica, where girls were getting pregnant and dropping out of school. “I asked my father how come no one asked me about going to college after graduating from high school,” recalled Gayle Green-Williams, “And he said that nobody in our family ever went to college, so how would we know?” That’s exactly where the Education Fund comes in. “The Fund showed me I have the potential (to get a college education), and I now can have the life I want,” she continued. “There is now no other option for me.”

Gayle Green-Williams’ story is not at all unique. Many women who have received fellowships from the fund are the first in their families to attend college. In fact, Billie Jean King seemed to have said it best as she accepted this year’s Elly Award from The Women’s Forum, an award established in Elinor Guggenheim’s honor: “If you can’t see it, you can’t be it.” And the long-time tennis champion knows this all too well. Igniting social change and gender equality on and off the tennis court as the winner of a record 20 Wimbledon titles and 39 Grand Slam singles, King went on to say, “It is so important for people to see examples of bravery and social change since every person can influence others.” It is not surprising, therefore, that King set out to empower women in sports by founding the Women’s Tennis Association, the Women’s Sports Foundation, and further inspired women while educating men after defeating Bobby Riggs in the Battle of the Sexes in 1973, a match that is probably most remembered for its contribution to the women’s movement during that decade.

And it is exactly about the importance of “seeing it,” as Billie Jean stated, that the awardees’ future generations will now know what is possible for them as well. As one of the Forum’s Board members, Dr. Dara Richardson-Heron, President and CEO of the YWCA summed it up following the Awards ceremony, “We want a world where women are equal players.”

And that is true both on and off the court.

Lori Sokol, Ph.D., is an organizational psychologist and the founder of Difference Matters http://www.differencematters.net magazine

There are numerous slip and fall lawsuits resulting from snow and ice on business premises. This comment briefly discusses each of three legal standards that may apply, depending upon the jurisdiction.

The “Natural Accumulation Rule” states that snow and ice are not created by the business owner and are not defective property conditions. Hence, the business owner has no responsibility to remove it and is not liable for injuries caused by slips or falls on it. A very limited exception to this rule applies if there has been a long passage of time during which snow has been compacted to ice. However, applying salt, shoveling, or plowing in and of themselves do not impose liability on the business owner.

The “Storm-in-Progress Rule” mandates that a business owner need only begin snow or ice removal after a reasonable time has passed from the end of a storm. A jury determines when the storm ended and if the injured individual slipped on un-removed “old” snow from a prior storm or “new” snow from a current storm. A reasonable care standard applies to the action of removing snow and ice.

The “Reasonable Care Rule” simply states that at all times a business owner must exercise reasonable care in addressing snow and ice. A jury decides if reasonable care exists. Snow and ice under this standard are no different than any other spill that should be cleaned-up. Even if the snow and ice are clearly visible, the business owner must act if an injury may be anticipated.

Business owners should utilize experienced legal counsel to determine what legal standard applies in their state. There may be local and state regulations that mandate snow and ice removal as well as safety signage. A business should not have drainage systems that add to ice accumulation. Additionally an insurance professional may address the appropriate form of liability insurance for the business.