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I will never forget being at a protest in June, seeing hundreds of cops approach on bikes, tanks nearby, ready to deploy tear gas on folks gathered. I saw the bikes, the guns, the vehicles, and thought about the students all over the city waiting on laptops for virtual learning.
By August, all students in our district had personal devices. 5 months into the pandemic, we got CARES Act money to ensure every student had a device. It took 5 minutes for hundreds of cops to line an entire street, loaded head to toe with gear they could fight a war in.
We have to be more courageous & imaginative about what our communities can be. We can line High Street with tanks and cops on bikes for miles while students wait 5 months to get a school laptop. I am not a budget expert, but I know one thing- our priories are clearly misaligned.
We should refund public schools and mental health services and other helping professions that have been inadequately funded for years and that support community flourishing and reduce crime and don’t have an arsenal of lethal weapons.
This is one tiny example in a sea of glaring ones. It is my context, coming from a profession that has been de-funded for yeats.
We can do better. We just have to want to.
We can do better. We just have to want to.
