A couple of stories that have no ending keep lingering in my life. Maria and I were sitting in the family room at my son's home in Seattle watching the news when both of these stories originally came to light for me.
First, it was the floods in Louisiana. A low-pressure system was sucking moisture out of the Gulf of Mexico and delivery it in copious amounts to the western and central region of Louisiana. A high-pressure ridge to the north and east held the low-pressure system in place like a good offensive tackle on a football team, for a couple of days. Some places received over 30 inches of rain in the 24 to 36-hour time frame. This amount of rain exceeds the amount of rain some areas of Louisiana get for an entire season.
Rivers climbed out of their banks, covered the floodplain, as defined by the history of these rivers, and then kept on climbing. The term a one hundred year flood has become part of our language. It is defined as an event that would statistically occur only once in every hundred years. This is a five hundred year flood. The number of destroyed homes is between forty and fifty thousand. Eighty percent of these homes are not flood insured.
The City of Mandeville where I lived in, for those few short months, on the north shore of Lake Ponchartrain, was spared the devastation their neighbors in Baton Rouge and Layfette suffered.
While there are many people in the urban areas affected by this expression of Mother Nature gone mad, there a many living in the smaller river towns and rural Bayou's that are further from help and comfort. The tradition of Southerners will rise to this situation as it did during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and Isac. The neighbor with something left will share it with the neighbor who has nothing.
These same people, who will tell you that they hate Obama and the federal government, are waiting, with hat in hand, for the president to arrive with promises of help and relief.
While I found that I could not abide living amongst the Lousiana I was exposed to; I feel for them, and I worry about their future.
Than there are the fires that burn in the City of Milwaukee. No, not the flames that destroyed the BP station on Sherman Boulevard or the police cars that were sent to the scene of a public protest. The flames I refer to are the flames burning in the belly of African Americans living in the most segregated city in the United States, Milwaukee. WI.
The lack of hope that hangs over their community is as palpable as a lakeside fog. It's a neighborhood that supports dozens of small and large churches. It's a community that values its history and achievements. It votes for its representatives. People pay their taxes and participate in their community.
I know this because when I was working in that community with Common Ground, I met and worked with many of the people that lived in Sherman Park. Sherman Park's recent history includes a period where black, white, Jewish and Christian's lived in harmony. The devastating dawn of the Rust Belt era brought this neighborhood to its knees with the loss of good paying jobs and the stability of the community that came with those jobs.
While a history racism in the management of the Police in Milwaukee is a known reality. The appointment of Chief Flynn by Mayor Barrett signaled a change. His approach is based on modern techniques and principles that proclaim that where the police and citizen work together, there are safe and peaceful neighborhoods.
Trust is earned not given. For whatever the reasons, that trust is not prevalent enough to give the concept traction. The catalyst for this latest and most violent expression of anger and hopelessness was the shooting of an armed young man. The young man was running from a black police officer when he allegedly turned on the pursuing officer and pulled a gun. The officer shot and killed the young man. This young man had a history of criminal activity including using a gun to commit the crimes.
So the question, why would the community come out in defense of this young hoodlum? Why would these good folks cry foul when the Police Officer, a black man, defends himself and others by shooting an armed man who intended to do harm?
The answer is simple, but hard for many of us to grasp. The distrust of the police is so deep in this community that the worst of them is better than any cop who patrols their neighborhood. This is a neighborhood where a child is accidentally killed as a result of a drive-by shooting, and no one will bear witness to the perpetrator. Sounds horrible to us white folks, but then we are not raised in an environment of hostility and victimhood that exists because of our skin color and our zip code.
I'm hopelessly lost when I try thinking of a solution to this problem. The solution, we are told, is recognizing the decades of racist opposition to allowing black people a share of the American dream. The dedication to move from a position of we versus them to us.
First, it was the floods in Louisiana. A low-pressure system was sucking moisture out of the Gulf of Mexico and delivery it in copious amounts to the western and central region of Louisiana. A high-pressure ridge to the north and east held the low-pressure system in place like a good offensive tackle on a football team, for a couple of days. Some places received over 30 inches of rain in the 24 to 36-hour time frame. This amount of rain exceeds the amount of rain some areas of Louisiana get for an entire season.
Rivers climbed out of their banks, covered the floodplain, as defined by the history of these rivers, and then kept on climbing. The term a one hundred year flood has become part of our language. It is defined as an event that would statistically occur only once in every hundred years. This is a five hundred year flood. The number of destroyed homes is between forty and fifty thousand. Eighty percent of these homes are not flood insured.
The City of Mandeville where I lived in, for those few short months, on the north shore of Lake Ponchartrain, was spared the devastation their neighbors in Baton Rouge and Layfette suffered.
While there are many people in the urban areas affected by this expression of Mother Nature gone mad, there a many living in the smaller river towns and rural Bayou's that are further from help and comfort. The tradition of Southerners will rise to this situation as it did during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and Isac. The neighbor with something left will share it with the neighbor who has nothing.
These same people, who will tell you that they hate Obama and the federal government, are waiting, with hat in hand, for the president to arrive with promises of help and relief.
While I found that I could not abide living amongst the Lousiana I was exposed to; I feel for them, and I worry about their future.
Than there are the fires that burn in the City of Milwaukee. No, not the flames that destroyed the BP station on Sherman Boulevard or the police cars that were sent to the scene of a public protest. The flames I refer to are the flames burning in the belly of African Americans living in the most segregated city in the United States, Milwaukee. WI.
The lack of hope that hangs over their community is as palpable as a lakeside fog. It's a neighborhood that supports dozens of small and large churches. It's a community that values its history and achievements. It votes for its representatives. People pay their taxes and participate in their community.
I know this because when I was working in that community with Common Ground, I met and worked with many of the people that lived in Sherman Park. Sherman Park's recent history includes a period where black, white, Jewish and Christian's lived in harmony. The devastating dawn of the Rust Belt era brought this neighborhood to its knees with the loss of good paying jobs and the stability of the community that came with those jobs.
While a history racism in the management of the Police in Milwaukee is a known reality. The appointment of Chief Flynn by Mayor Barrett signaled a change. His approach is based on modern techniques and principles that proclaim that where the police and citizen work together, there are safe and peaceful neighborhoods.
Trust is earned not given. For whatever the reasons, that trust is not prevalent enough to give the concept traction. The catalyst for this latest and most violent expression of anger and hopelessness was the shooting of an armed young man. The young man was running from a black police officer when he allegedly turned on the pursuing officer and pulled a gun. The officer shot and killed the young man. This young man had a history of criminal activity including using a gun to commit the crimes.
So the question, why would the community come out in defense of this young hoodlum? Why would these good folks cry foul when the Police Officer, a black man, defends himself and others by shooting an armed man who intended to do harm?
The answer is simple, but hard for many of us to grasp. The distrust of the police is so deep in this community that the worst of them is better than any cop who patrols their neighborhood. This is a neighborhood where a child is accidentally killed as a result of a drive-by shooting, and no one will bear witness to the perpetrator. Sounds horrible to us white folks, but then we are not raised in an environment of hostility and victimhood that exists because of our skin color and our zip code.
I'm hopelessly lost when I try thinking of a solution to this problem. The solution, we are told, is recognizing the decades of racist opposition to allowing black people a share of the American dream. The dedication to move from a position of we versus them to us.
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