Demand a plan to end gun violence

Lincoln Alexander leaves Queen's Park for the last time

Signing guest register. Photo courtesy Ann Green

I was able to get downtown last night to pay last respects to Lincoln Alexander and shoot this video of his motorcade pulling out and heading to Hamilton.

There's plenty written about his life, work and legacy all over the internet - he lived a life dedicated to not only making Canada a better place, but also to inspiring people to do the same. 

I'll just echo one quote of his that I particularly embrace:

"I'm proud of being black, but my role in Canada is to serve all the people. I'm a Canadian. Period."

Birds, miracles and Elgan's big move

Yesterday we moved Elgan into his dormitory to start grade nine at a private boarding school, out of town, but within a half hour’s drive if traffic isn’t killer.

A remarkable thing happened when we arrived but, in order to appreciate it, I’ve got to tell a story of something that happened to me a few years ago.

I was taking courses at a school in Massachusetts and, after moving into the dorm, I was heading out to the town to pick up some provisions, when I saw a bird flying around inside the front vestibule. It couldn’t figure out where the door was, and kept flying into the glass above and beside the doorway.  It’d fly into the glass a few times then collapse to the floor, exhausted and battered. 

After a few cycles of this, it didn’t get up. I picked it up and carried it outside, placing it on the grass under a tree. It did not fly away, it fell over on its side and just lay there. After a few minutes of trying to stand it up, it stayed standing long enough for me to pick it up and put it in a branch of the tree and see that it could grasp the branch, so I left it there and went about my business.

An hour or so later, as I returned to the dorm, I stopped to see if the bird had fallen down into the grass. I looked around and didn’t see it, and wondered if perhaps a cat got to it; suddenly, a loud chirping made me look up – the bird was on the branch where I’d left it. 

And in that moment, the strangest thing happened – it turned its head to look at me (or, so I could see its eye), chirped again, and then flew off. Did it actually wait for me to return so it could let me know it was okay? Was the chirp saying thanks?

Anyway, back to moving day yesterday. We arrived at the dorm, walk in the back door and, looking through to the front door, I see a vestibule. With a bird flying around inside it, unable to find the door, flapping and banging itself into the glass. What are the odds?

So, I corralled the little bird and guided its movement until it could find the door and fly away. This time, there was no “hey, thanks man” kind of chirp…but the coincidence of freeing a bird from the confusion of windows that look an awful lot like open sky, in the vestibule of a school dormitory is, in my opinion, no coincidence at all.

For some reason, whether a bird being my brand mascot, or birds trapped in vestibules, birds seem to be agents of inspiration for me. Is this 2nd installment of the trapped-bird-thing a miracle? Of course, it is! (see You're judging this [expletive] the wrong way: Pulp Fiction and miracles).

What does it mean? I think it means that the decision for Elgan to go to this school is the right one, and that things should work out, and this is timely and much-appreciated encouragement because it’s definitely a financial faith enterprise.

Spain's bailout indicative of a bigger problem

I read today that Spain is going to need a $125 billion bailout.

Here are some relatively recent unemployment rates according to Wikipedia:

North America

• Canada, 7.2 percent
• United States, 8.2 percent

Europe

• Germany, 5.4 percent
• United Kingdom, 8.1 percent
• France, 10.2 percent
• Italy, 10.2 percent
• Portugal, 15.2 percent
• Greece, 21.7 percent
• Spain, 24.3 percent.

Compare Spain's 24.3% unemployment rate against Canada's highest rate during the Great Depression: 19.3% in 1933; the United States reached 24.75% in that toughest of years. 

The thing is, Spain “a few years ago took pride as the continent’s economic superstar only to see it become the hot spot in the Eurozone debt crisis.”

What’s the value of a system that can call a nation a superstar even while the very machinations of its undoing must have already been underway? How do they get to Depression Era unemployment numbers without us seeing it coming?

Should a country called the "economic superstar" that is situated on the same continent and in the same economic zone as Germany - a country that is home to many strong global brands such as Porsche, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Audi and Volkswagen - have had to earn such a lofty credit by having an economy based on stability and long-term viability?

How could a system miss a country like Germany while naming Spain its superstar? As if to say, "you should pattern your economy after the standards set by our superstar, Spain". 

And now, from where is the money supposed to come, to bail out Spain? From the other countries who were not deemed to be economic superstars? From public coffers, paid back through "austerity" policies and downward pressure on wages that most hurt the people least able to absorb the financial straits? Is this not an accelerator of the increasing wealth gap? As we continue to observe that "the rich get richer", clearly "austerity" is not an imposition on their stratospheric collective net worth and disproportionate share of their respective nation's economies.

This is not about picking on Spain. It is calling out a system that doesn't make a whole lot of sense...unless...

Unless being named an "economic superstar" encouraged the nation to do more of what it was doing, which was unsustainable in the first place. Unless being called an "economic superstar" was like greasing the skids at the edge of the cliff and then providing a helpful push. Instability, uncertainty and confusion create the perfect sleight of hand - while we watch the collapse, we are missing the robbery of the poor.

--- post script summer 2013---

Reflecting on Canada, Mark Carney, former governor of the Bank of Canada, is now governor of the Bank of England. That cat helped keep Canada relatively stable through the financial downtown of the last five years. His steady hand at the wheel of Canada's money supply drew the world's attention, and he was recruited out. Now that the cat is away, will the mice play and undo all he did?

Diffusion of responsibility, NIMBYism and deciding to be someone in support of a free society

Scenarios

In 1964 New York City, Kitty Genovese is repeatedly attacked over the course of a half hour in the courtyard encircled by several apartment buildings. No one calls police. 

In your typical baseball game, a high fly ball is falling in shallow centre. The 2^nd baseman has tracked back while the centre fielder as ranged forward. At the last moment, both stop and the ball drops between the two millionaire professional baseball players.

In a standard social psychology textbook, these are examples of what is called “diffusion of responsibility.” And, in the case against Luka Magnotta (born Eric Newman), diffusion of responsibility can't impose upon jury availability if we want justice, but who is going to want to view the video evidence of the murder, indignities and dismemberment of Jun Lin?

Diffusion of responsibility

When a group of individuals is faced with an action that must be taken by someone within the group, any individual is likely to assume “someone else will do it” — they will diffuse the responsibility out across the entire group; of course, if each individual within the group diffuses responsibility to “someone else,” then no one ends up doing it. In 1964 New York City, the actual events did not quite transpire as the eventual myth surrounding the tragedy would evolve, but the case has become a classical real-world working illustration in support of the then fledgling discipline of social psychology, that branch of psychology that emerged to recognize, examine and attempt to make sense of the intricate manner in which an environment can influence decision-making. 

It appeared that everyone who witnessed the attack also saw other people witnessing the attack and assumed “someone will call the police” (the specific phenomenon in this case is referred to as “bystander effect”). In the baseball game, the second baseman heard the centre fielder calling for it, and the centre fielder saw the second baseman tracking it…so they both stopped to let the other guy catch it. 

In a twist on this concept, social progress can often be hindered and hampered by the conflict of individual rights vs. the common good. If civil planning calls for a new highway and the plans cut across “my property,” I might be inclined to show up at the zoning town hall meeting to cry out “Progress is great and everything — just, Not In My Back Yard!” This is another way of saying “someone else will contribute to this progress.”

Who holds the hot potato?

The topic of diffusion of responsibility came up during a recent conversation with someone close to me (who shall remain nameless to protect his identity) about Luka Magnotta. There is a video on the internet that allegedly was posted by him, purporting to record in gruesome, graphic detail the ice pick murder of his gay ex-lover Jun Lin, followed by the sexual desecration and dismemberment of the body. I’ve read tweets and comments on the internet of people wondering how anyone would want to look at the video — who would hold on to that hot potato? 

I asked, during that recent conversation, whether that person would be willing to accept a call to jury duty that naturally would require having to view that video along with whatever other evidence would be submitted in the process of trying the defendant; before I could finish the question, the answer came back most abruptly, “Nope.” So, then I asked* “If the court failed to find a jury, would you be okay with the defendant being set free to walk the streets?” 

*If you are a lawyer or savvy with law, don’t write to say “that’s not how it works,” unless you’re going to share how it does work. I’m not a lawyer, I just believe there needs to be more engagement of the workings of due process at the level of the common person in order to better understand the society in which we live, and perhaps provide clarity that will debunk right wing propaganda criticizing what they refer to as a lenient justice system that favours criminals, which I believe to be a poor conclusion based on a lack of understanding “the system”.

The system of free society

Anyway, the point is, a person is innocent until found guilty by a jury of peers in a court of law (which is the topic I’ll be exploring in an upcoming series). If there is no jury, how can we get a conviction? And, if we cannot get a conviction, isn’t an innocent person free to go? And thus we consider diffusion of responsibility.

One of the reasons we have a jury of peers is to increase the likelihood of getting a fair trial by having your case decided by “people like you.” This system is, therefore, biased in favour of the innocent, reducing the incidence of sending innocent people to prison. If we can’t find people to willingly participate in this process, we are in danger of giving up that protective mechanism, with the increased risk of one day being charged with a crime we did not commit and then finding ourselves before a jury of people who are unlike us, who can’t see things from our perspective, and who will take away our rights and freedoms unjustly.

The inherent thrust of a “free society” concept is that we don’t just take away people’s rights and freedoms without exertion, effort, and expense. Free, innocent people have rights, one of which is that an arduous process must determine guilt, not gut feelings and whims magnified by misinformation, speculation and conjecture. 

Yes, we acknowledge that, in the pursuit of that arduous process, certain rights are diminished, such as the right to move freely while being detained during the course of due process, etc. However, we concede the give-and-take of handling the complex implications of the free society concept: someone who is “still innocent” has some rights curtailed, while someone who has been convicted still retains some rights as dignified human beings (and, there are other systems that treat convicted criminals with far more dignity and “kid gloves” than even lenient Canada, and find that they get better results in terms of reduced recidivism and real rehabilitative achievement by focusing on the reality that the punishment for breaking the law is the loss of freedom, not the loss of dignity nor the endurance of excessive cruelty while surrendering freedom to pay for a crime).

One of the hopes of this post, and the series that will follow, is to raise the sense of value we have for the notion – in all its implications – of freedom. I believe that the valuation of freedom is the greatest deterrent against crime, for those of sound mind to grasp it. Mental, psychological and emotional ill-health are all very real factors that can hinder one’s capability of understanding freedom to the degree that it can function as a deterrent. 

Lesson from my hockey-officiating career

I spent a year officiating hockey as a level-2 certified referee, and I learned a lot, not just about hockey, but about life. One thing that struck me, having played hockey at a high competitive level (triple-A), is that no one ever taught us kids the rules while we were playing. Sure, we learned enough to move the puck from here to there, and left it to the refs to blow the whistle when they didn’t like something. One of the hallmarks of junior hockey is the unfortunate phenomenon of “hockey parents” in the stands fighting and yelling at the coach, the other coach, the players, other parents…and definitely at the officials, and one of the reasons for all the fighting is that people simple do not know the rules.

We played the game, but we had little idea of the details of how the game works, insofar as complex rules are concerned. I’m sure the same could be said of the finer nuances of baseball (what exactly IS a “strike zone”?) or basketball (was that a foul or an offensive charge?)

And such is the case with life. There are many rules, but a limited degree to which people will learn everything they need to function productively in society. There’s a lot required to support a free society concept and, for all those who think this concept is bad, or that it’s not worth fighting for, take some time out to seriously consider the alternative – a society in which someone is assumed guilty without due process is a society in which

• people disappear in the middle of the night, never to be seen again; or

• you may bump into someone while riding the city bus, be charged with assault and awarded a criminal conviction, social stigma, lost wages and employability without ever getting an opportunity to say “hey, the bus hit a pot hole, it could have happened to anybody;” or

• writing an article that criticizes the mayor, the chief of police, or the local librarian could get you fired, or convicted of treason.

If we want safe streets, and we want criminals “put away,” it’s going to take people who are willing to get their hands dirty and, in the truest sense of democracy, actively participate in the process, and not diffuse that responsibility to someone else because, to someone else, I am “someone else.”

While studies show that diffusion of responsibility does happen, studies also show that assumption of responsibility also happens. If a person in a situation perceives herself to be “the only one who can do something,” she is more likely to do something. When people find themselves thinking “somebody’s got to do something,” they tend to decide that they’ve got to be that someone.

A free society concept assumes that each individual wants the responsibility of bearing a fair share of the burden inherent in the concept. Government “of the people, for the people, by the people” includes me among “the people.” If I take that seriously, then I will be less likely to dump my responsibility off on “someone else.”

Jury duty

In the meantime, somebody viciously murdered Lin, cut his body into pieces and then mailed some of those pieces to various government offices. A person capable of doing such things to another human being is someone we need off the streets. We’ve got a suspect in custody, and a trial hopefully will ensue as soon as possible without a rush to judgment that cuts corners and threatens to set him free on technicalities.

Twelve citizens are going to have to watch that video and agree that it points to the accused as the perpetrator of such vile and heinous acts, so we want to make sure we’ve got the right person; that the evidence is presented in a manner that clearly points to the right person, and that the jury is capable of returning the right verdict.

Statistically, sure, for 99.99999% of the population of Ontario, “someone else will do it” is reality (a jury is twelve people with alternates standing by, out of a provincial population of 12.8 million people is an infinitesimal portion). However, generally speaking, let’s be mindful that when diffusion of responsibility is permitted to permeate a process, we end up standing around while dropping the ball in our midst.

What it takes to level the playing field: handicapped parking and affirmative action

I recall actually wondering to myself, “Why am I penalized by having to walk farther from where I can find a parking space to the mall entrance, just because I am not handicapped? Here are five empty spaces, why can’t I park in one if they’re not even being used?” It challenged me to stop and think through the idea, after which I chided myself, for ever having “thunk such thoughts” (although, the rigor did result in graduating to better thoughts).

Equality (think “balance”) is about everyone having an equal chance. It is not about guaranteeing equal results, but that one’s chances for success are equally-accessible. It recognizes that society has evolved with success geared towards the normative (whatever that may be, rightly or mightly) and that, as such, anyone who is not within the normative group (often through no “fault” of their own) will have a more difficult time accessing resources.

Picture, if you will, a football field heavily slanted towards one end. The team who must kick the ball uphill won’t be able to move the ball as far as quickly as the other team who has gravity literally on their side. More than this, gravity is actually working against the team at the low end of the field. Gravity, then, not only makes it easier on the team up top, but makes it harder on the team at the bottom, without either team having to do anything, nor with any respect to the actual skill and talent of the players on either team. It just so happened that team A was put on the bottom looking up, and team B was put on the top looking down.

Now, how enjoyable would the season be if one team always got the top end of the field, and the other teams always got the bottom end? When the league administration realizes the product is losing commercial viability and looks for a solution, someone suggests “why don’t we level the playing field?”

At this point, the league spends money and expends energy and effort on bulldozers and backhoes, to level the field. How do they level the field? They take dirt from the high end of the field, and dump it at the low end of the field. The dirt that was moved is no longer available to the team who once stood on it at the high end; more dirt is now available to the other team previously occupying the low end, but now able to stand on the new infusion of dirt previously unavailable to them. The high end comes down, the low end comes up, the field gets leveled, the game is better, the fans return, revenues rebound and gain new heights.

Some parking spaces were removed from use for some, and provided for use by others. And, thus, the field is now level, and there is an equal opportunity for people to engage in commerce, either adding to the supply of goods and services as a part of the workforce, or adding to the demand for goods and services, as a shopper. Or, looked at another way, more access to the workforce increases the demand for goods and services by more people earning a salary; and more access for hoppers increase the supply by adding revenues to stores that can then buy more stuff.

The hypothetical soccer league reallocated dirt. The mall reallocates parking spaces.  Affirmative action reallocates jobs. While the process of reallocation appears to favour one group over another; it is a corrective measure to offset historically imbalanced access.

Why do we celebrate Black History Month? To re-humanize a people

I believe that Black History Month is for everyone. However, Black History Month is important for Black people, and it’s important to understand why.

Problem, Solution

Colonialists had a problem. They were Christian, yet their method of slavery was inhumane. The solution was to decide that Africans were not human and thus were not eligible to be recipients of love as the Bible required; rather, they could be treated as cattle, as beasts of burden, and in an inhumane manner. To reinforce this, it is documented that they embarked on a systematic program of dehumanization.

Eliminated culture

To dehumanize, African slaves had to be separated from the vestiges and hallmarks of humanity – culture. Tactics included separating Africans from their tribesmen so that, on the plantation, they could not communicate, share their stories, their histories, or organize themselves; making it illegal for slaves to learn to read, or go to school; breaking apart the family unit, separating husbands from wives, parents from children, shredding apart trust by making it worthless to invest in relationships on plantation if slaves were only going to be sold, lynched or otherwise prevented from exercising any free will or self-determinism.

Eliminated history

Not only were Africans prevented from cultural expression, they were also prevented from custodianship of their histories of cultural expression. The  repository of culture, the place where culture is stored and maintained in order to be available for, and of value to, successive generations, is in history and the work of its curators. If there are no curators, and therefore no history, there is no culture, there is no humanity.

In thinking about these and many other tactics, it’s not hard to see the residual damage still entrenched within Black communities. After all, European/American slave trade lasted several centuries – generations of diaspora Africans knew no other way of life but as sub-human property of slave owners.

Restoring history, rebuilding culture

Black History Month, then, is one of many initiatives burdened with the challenge of recreating an historical context for people of the African Diaspora. There is so much data that have been lost or destroyed in the Middle Passage from Africa to the West, utterly unrecoverable, lost forever, especially genealogies connecting the African Diaspora to their rightful pasts. 

Thus does Black History Month not only seek to restore and rebuild what it can from the records that remain; it also serves to create new stories, new history of what has happened since the Great Passage, a New World context in which to reset the African Diaspora back into the fellowship of humanity and equality – it’s all about re-humanizing people.