Be the change you want to happen

Senior Airman Roger Fortson

It’s been a while since I posted, and that’s not because I didn’t have things on my mind. I just haven’t had enough time to sit in front of the screen and peck away at the keyboard. As a matter of fact, I’m doing this while waiting for some ground chicken to thaw in order to prepare dinner for the family before I get outside and cut the grass. Life has just been doing its thing like that for me over the past month. Anyway, I think I figured a way to get multiple topics into a single post, and I’ll try to get this one done quickly

The picture at the top is that of Senior Airman Roger Fortson. In a sane world, he’d still be alive and enjoying his Sunday afternoon right now instead of being one of several topics of conversation in this country. It’s a sad sign of the times that his story isn’t much different than stories we’ve heard before.

He was killed by a sheriff’s deputy responding to a domestic call in which the deputy ended up at the wrong apartment. Again. This is the same department that shot up one of their own vehicles when an acorn dropped on the car, and the deputy thought he was under fire. There are obvious training issues with this department, but that’s not my focus today.

Fortson was killed because a deputy saw a gun in the hands of a Black man and reacted. Never mind that Florida is a gun-friendly state, and Fortson was not breaking any laws. As in previous cases, there was no reason for deadly force to be used by the officer. At no point was that deputy in any danger, and there was no reason to fear for his life or the life of anyone in the immediate vicinity. I can say this with confidence because the deputy didn’t give any time for Fortson to begin to make a threatening move. If simply having your hand on a gun was enough to establish the use of deadly force, this guy here would be dead.

Guess what, he’s not. In fact, that officer would be dead if the guy with the hand on his gun had any bad intentions. Action is always faster than reaction. Both officers could be shot before either one of them got their guns out of their holster.

Also happening today, President Biden gave the commencement address at Morehouse. There have been protests about him being there due to the war going on in Israel. I commend both the people who were protesting Biden’s appearance as well as the school for ensuring the ceremony was held with no problems. What I don’t like is how the issue is trying to be used to drive a wedge into the Black community.

There are legitimate issues being put forth about America’s involvement with Israel and the treatment of Palestinians. I haven’t addressed that issue on this blog yet, but I guess I’ll put my $.02 online today. I believe that Israel’s government has gone too far with their actions towards the Palestinian people just as I believe that our actions after 9/11 were wrong.

Terrorist acts are crimes and not acts of war in my honest opinion. The response to an act of terrorism, therefore, should be more of a law enforcement action instead of a military response. We screwed that up royally after 9/11, and Israel’s government is doing the same post 10/7. Use law enforcement to capture the bad actors and allow the criminal courts to handle things. Bombs and bullets do nothing more than kill innocent people and recruit more people willing to fight along with the terrorists.

I’ll ask this question of those who are blaming Biden and America for not coming to the rescue of the Palestinian people. When has America ever came to the aid of brown people out of altruistic intent? We forced Haiti to pay restitution for overthrowing the yoke of slavery. We didn’t come to the aid of Rwanda. We didn’t stop the massacre in Sudan. We’re not even doing anything to help the people of the Congo. Why would Palestinians be any different than our historical actions?

These two situations, Fortson and Israel, are very different from each other, but they come from the same root issue. America does not value the life of some as much as they value the lives of others. No amount of protesting will change that history as fast as we can change it by becoming agents of change. There are several ways of bringing that change to fruition, but not voting is definitely not on that list. That idea needs to die a horrible death.

If you’re unhappy with the political parties, get involved with the primaries and stuff. If you only vote in the general elections, then you’re left to vote for candidates that others have selected for you. Primaries is where the rubber hits the road. If you want to change the party, you have to change the people in the seats. That comes from growing candidates at the local level and getting them on ballots through the primary process.

There is no requirement that an incumbent has to be re-elected, nor is there any law that an incumbent cannot be challenged. If you go that route, don’t half-ass it with someone that isn’t ready for that kind of battle. Change happens first at the local level long before anything happens at the federal level. Roe was undone because of state law. While people are focusing their ire on President Biden, Congress should get just as much heat, if not more. They have the power to legislate the actions of the Executive Branch.

At the local level, police departments need to be changed. I thought having body cameras would bring some change as more and more people could see what was happening to fellow citizens. Instead, we created a sub-industry that amounts to snuff films. Trying to legislate change through training isn’t going to work because you cannot train people to adopt behaviors when they refuse to be trained. The personnel must be replaced, and they have to be replaced with people who are willing to change the nature of policing from what it has historically been in this country.

This change won’t be easy, and it will take the involvement and commitment of more than just people who are personally affected by the issues. When I see people complaining about issues but refusing to actually effect change, I now wonder if they’re complaining as some type of performance for likes or recognition vs wanting to truly change this society for the better. I’ve offered my views on policing before, and I work every day to change things from the inside. I’m not quite ready to throw my hat into the political arena, but you never know what the future holds.

If you’re like me and are tired of these issues reoccurring over and over again, don’t just ask someone to make changes you want to see. Be that change yourself. I hope this makes sense because I feel like I’ve been rambling. Either way, let me know what you think in the comments. I’ve gotta get started on dinner now. DFACS doesn’t like it when you don’t feed the kids. 🙂