I find myself with more time on my hands lately. I still have meetings, but I don’t have to drive to them. I don’t go out to eat and I spend less time with friends than I used to. Business is slow and I still have a staff I can pay for now so what am I doing? All kinds of things but one is throwing myself into some of the organizations I volunteer with. I’ve been spending most of my volunteering time working with the City of Aurora as a member of the Human Relations Commission. We in turn, have been working closely with the city to collaborate with, the Chief of Police. Like many cities, Aurora is facing a reckoning in how their police force operates. Our commission can’t solve this problem alone, but we’re hoping to help our new chief by sharing insight from the community and trying to prevent problems before they start. At least going forward.
Trying to make sweeping, systemic change while under a national microscope is hard. I am bombarded with information daily and my role in this process is relatively peripheral. I can’t imagine how challenging this is for those in charge. I’m glad people feel they can come to me with concerns. It’s a huge part of why I’m doing this and I know there are huge problems, I see them in the news every day. I do wonder sometimes if Aurora is truly worse than most other police forces or if it’s a symptom of a national system of oppression. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter. There is no excuse for their behavior and “everyone else does it too” is old and tired and frankly, bullshit. And so I hope that the work I’m doing is at least pushing things in the right direction. I hope the choices I make and the words that I say help more than hurt. And I’ll keep pushing for change.
Change though, is hard. the police force was created over 200 years ago to catch slaves. Its history is long and brutal. Undoing an unjust system that has existed for centuries is going to take time. It has already taken decades. Many people before now have been doing the good work to see real change. Some of them died for it. Some worked long and hard and will never see what they worked so hard for. I hope that this moment in our nation, this strange, sad, tragic, hopeful moment is a turning point. I hope that 2 years, 5 years, 20 years from now I can look back and say, “what a change was made.” That change though, even in a best case scenario, is years off. That means that those who came before us, have to keep fighting. Those who joined the fight recently (like me), have to keep fighting. And all of us have to keep teaching those around us, because we need more people. We need protesters, we need lobbyists, we need politicians and city employees, citizens and organizers. We need all of them if we’re going to see real change. We are going to get tired. We are going to be defeated over and over again. This is a ship that’s been going in one direction for a long time. If we want to change its course, it’s going to take all of us, and it’s going to take time. And it’s going to take space. A ship can’t turn on a dime, it needs room and power to push it in the right direction. Let’s hope the timing is right this time.