I was heavily involved in "democratic" Sudbury schools for some years. Each school community would go through a process of making their own rules, which would be added to a rule book which could be referenced. The rules grew and grew. Children began to be irritated, as they would violate rules which were no longer relevant, be dragged in…
I was heavily involved in "democratic" Sudbury schools for some years. Each school community would go through a process of making their own rules, which would be added to a rule book which could be referenced. The rules grew and grew. Children began to be irritated, as they would violate rules which were no longer relevant, be dragged into Judicial Committee and have to stop their inspiring self-directed lives to answer to stupid rules someone once made and forgotten until someone held it up again to be followed. So tedious! We went to A Sudbury conference, many schools gathered, and discovered this is a common problem. Well, the solution was to throw out the rules books and start over. But.... The better solution was to throw out the rules books and then utilize the Agile Learning process. Rules were reduced to minimal principles much alike to the Golden Rule: do unto others... When something new was needed, like, no playing in the romper room because it is being used for an art project, they were considered to be temporary working plans. They would persist until either: everyone was doing OK and the plan need not be spoken to be followed; the plan was not working or irrelevant and changed; the plan was not wanted and dropped.
When I was a teen, I got in trouble with the police for being in the school parking lot after dark, trespassing on "private" property at the public school. My friend was taken into custody. Incensed, I skipped school the next day to visit the police chief. He proceeded to give me an education in how a police officer can find a reason to stop a car, if desired. From there he can find a reason to search. From there he can find a reason to arrest. I don't know why he told me this, but it sure made an impression.
As an adult, I lived in a large city with a large homeless population. One of the tools used to try to get rid of them was to charge them for a variety of offenses that regular people are never charged with. The homeless would often not have money to pay the fines, and alao be fearful or inept at the beaurocratic process of legal self-defense. So, many kept on, only to end up with a warrant for their arrest for things like parking violations and jaywalking. As I thought that was wrong on principle, I got involved. Turns out even that many of the charges were made with the officer knowing full well the person had not committed the alleged crime. They would ticket and charge because either it would simply be dropped without repercussions if the accused could rarely show up in court, or it would hold because many victims didn't want, weren't able, or know how to defend themselves.
So disgusting. I used to be all in on the “back the blue” in 2020. Now I only support selectively if the officer earns it. No blanket immunity for LEOs. Not because they are all racist POSs like the 2020 claim was. But because so many are unethical and power tripping, and use their powers for evil rather than good. When they arrest people for not wearing a mask, or arrest them for “insurrection” BS, and the list goes on and on 😒 -I’m out. Add onto that the millions of laws they can use against law abiding citizens who don’t even know it was a law. It’s all so sickening. And one of our closest friends is a retired trooper. He was one of the good ones. To steal from Fla Mom - Back the Blue who BACK THE CONSTITUTION. 🎯
The COVID Scamdemic was a massive wake up call which resulted in tens of thousands of people losing respect for the medical industry. I myself would rather die than let these people have ANY control over me. (Who could've known that I would adopt the cry of "My body, my choice!"?)
But it also made me question all of my assumptions about every facet of my life and experience, and presumed allies.
I can understand how difficult it is to try to act with integrity when you have power and authority. I've removed myself from positions where the pressure to abuse the position made it impossible for me to continue, because I'd know full well that to do so I would then be willing to sell out my integrity. It's very difficult, but I still expect others to sincerely wrestle with the morality and ethics of what they do. Avoiding losing your job, for example, or refusing to see your own weakness, will result in a much grander scale of harm.
I remember decades ago hearing of a psychological profile study of gun toting, uniform wearing, (un)civi servants. The study results as I recall indicated that the greater majority of individuals who wanted to wear a uniform and carry a gun probably shouldn't be allowed to do either because they tended to be authoritarian and potential bullies who would abuse their power. Now here we are DEI and incompetence everywhere in the guise of civil servants.
It is a real conundrum. You don't want people without integrity and good character to be in such positions, but, you don't want to do it yourself. You don't want to do it yourself because you know your own weaknesses and fear the eternal weight of what you might do in error given an authority that is beyond the simplicity of your person. Should the roles and system be considered at fault? Is it human limitation and sinfulness that is at fault? Should we urge ourselves to take on roles, even knowing that they are beyond our ability to fill without the sure danger of weighty error and harm? Or is the influence of the bad apples so disproportionate that if we could somehow neutralize harm resulting from the worst of people, maybe things would roughly work in a healthy and positive way?
I was heavily involved in "democratic" Sudbury schools for some years. Each school community would go through a process of making their own rules, which would be added to a rule book which could be referenced. The rules grew and grew. Children began to be irritated, as they would violate rules which were no longer relevant, be dragged into Judicial Committee and have to stop their inspiring self-directed lives to answer to stupid rules someone once made and forgotten until someone held it up again to be followed. So tedious! We went to A Sudbury conference, many schools gathered, and discovered this is a common problem. Well, the solution was to throw out the rules books and start over. But.... The better solution was to throw out the rules books and then utilize the Agile Learning process. Rules were reduced to minimal principles much alike to the Golden Rule: do unto others... When something new was needed, like, no playing in the romper room because it is being used for an art project, they were considered to be temporary working plans. They would persist until either: everyone was doing OK and the plan need not be spoken to be followed; the plan was not working or irrelevant and changed; the plan was not wanted and dropped.
When I was a teen, I got in trouble with the police for being in the school parking lot after dark, trespassing on "private" property at the public school. My friend was taken into custody. Incensed, I skipped school the next day to visit the police chief. He proceeded to give me an education in how a police officer can find a reason to stop a car, if desired. From there he can find a reason to search. From there he can find a reason to arrest. I don't know why he told me this, but it sure made an impression.
As an adult, I lived in a large city with a large homeless population. One of the tools used to try to get rid of them was to charge them for a variety of offenses that regular people are never charged with. The homeless would often not have money to pay the fines, and alao be fearful or inept at the beaurocratic process of legal self-defense. So, many kept on, only to end up with a warrant for their arrest for things like parking violations and jaywalking. As I thought that was wrong on principle, I got involved. Turns out even that many of the charges were made with the officer knowing full well the person had not committed the alleged crime. They would ticket and charge because either it would simply be dropped without repercussions if the accused could rarely show up in court, or it would hold because many victims didn't want, weren't able, or know how to defend themselves.
So disgusting. I used to be all in on the “back the blue” in 2020. Now I only support selectively if the officer earns it. No blanket immunity for LEOs. Not because they are all racist POSs like the 2020 claim was. But because so many are unethical and power tripping, and use their powers for evil rather than good. When they arrest people for not wearing a mask, or arrest them for “insurrection” BS, and the list goes on and on 😒 -I’m out. Add onto that the millions of laws they can use against law abiding citizens who don’t even know it was a law. It’s all so sickening. And one of our closest friends is a retired trooper. He was one of the good ones. To steal from Fla Mom - Back the Blue who BACK THE CONSTITUTION. 🎯
Back the Blue Who Back the Constitution.
The COVID Scamdemic was a massive wake up call which resulted in tens of thousands of people losing respect for the medical industry. I myself would rather die than let these people have ANY control over me. (Who could've known that I would adopt the cry of "My body, my choice!"?)
But it also made me question all of my assumptions about every facet of my life and experience, and presumed allies.
"Back the Blue, no matter who?"
Mmm, not so much anymore.
I can understand how difficult it is to try to act with integrity when you have power and authority. I've removed myself from positions where the pressure to abuse the position made it impossible for me to continue, because I'd know full well that to do so I would then be willing to sell out my integrity. It's very difficult, but I still expect others to sincerely wrestle with the morality and ethics of what they do. Avoiding losing your job, for example, or refusing to see your own weakness, will result in a much grander scale of harm.
I remember decades ago hearing of a psychological profile study of gun toting, uniform wearing, (un)civi servants. The study results as I recall indicated that the greater majority of individuals who wanted to wear a uniform and carry a gun probably shouldn't be allowed to do either because they tended to be authoritarian and potential bullies who would abuse their power. Now here we are DEI and incompetence everywhere in the guise of civil servants.
It is a real conundrum. You don't want people without integrity and good character to be in such positions, but, you don't want to do it yourself. You don't want to do it yourself because you know your own weaknesses and fear the eternal weight of what you might do in error given an authority that is beyond the simplicity of your person. Should the roles and system be considered at fault? Is it human limitation and sinfulness that is at fault? Should we urge ourselves to take on roles, even knowing that they are beyond our ability to fill without the sure danger of weighty error and harm? Or is the influence of the bad apples so disproportionate that if we could somehow neutralize harm resulting from the worst of people, maybe things would roughly work in a healthy and positive way?