Brent Harold
What was Officer Derek Chauvin thinking ( feeling, experiencing) for those nine-plus minutes kneeling on George Floyd s neck? Was he really more afraid than he looked? Was he feeling racist rage? Or maybe a sense of duty to set an example for the less experienced cops standing around?
A few minutes of Google searching turned up nothing on the question. We don t seem all that interested in what was going through his mind.
In the aftermath of the Chauvin murder trial, there is the sense that now maybe we will see some fundamental change in policing. The George Floyd police reform bill, if it can get enacted through the Senate, is certainly a step in the right direction. But along with new police procedures and rules, what s needed is a radical ( root) change in the ideology of division of labor, as applied to the work of policing.
Brent Harold
Two and a half months into Biden s energetic presidency, we continue to be plagued with dangerously divided beliefs. Election stolen, or the most careful election in history. Trump a great hero, or Trump headed for prison if there s any justice to be had from a Trump-skewed justice system. Vaccines a great scientific miracle salvation, or a satanic plot to inject socialism into the bodies of the naïve. Biden s ambitious agenda long awaited to get the country back on track, or the machinations of the Deep State.
It s hard to find any beliefs we share in common. Yes, we are all Americans, but the concept of “American” in this divided time seems empty.
HAROLD: The various conundrums and contradictions of COVID-19 capecodtimes.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from capecodtimes.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Brent Harold
On March 12 of last year, COVID-19 had its first practical effect on my life when I went to a drugstore to buy a card for my wife s birthday. A woman was standing in front of the card rack making her selection.
Hmmm, I thought, maybe I better wait til she s through. I bided my time at the magazine rack until she moved on.
My wariness at that point wasn t an instance of what was soon to be the almost ubiquitous recommendation of social distancing. I kept my distance because for the first time, it occurred to me there was a finite chance that this fellow human was contaminated.