Emphasis on Equality


June 26, 2020

My why in life is to make things better because I believe better matters. The current events surrounding the relationship between law enforcement and African Americans are like a magnet to me. There is a problem that needs to be made better and my why is to make things better. I’m a lawyer and this involves the law. So I should just roll up my sleeves and jump in, right?
Not so fast. I’ve come to learn that my why is like a toddler. It is constantly trying to find places to pull me into, even if I don’t have the knowledge or tools to make a difference.

I am a lawyer focused on medical negligence. I have no experience with the laws that govern the relationship between the police and the public. I’m a person who is able to recognize there is a problem that needs to be fixed but I have no experience as a police officer or as an African American interacting with the police.
In circumstances like this I default to a lyric from a song called Ten Thousand Words by a folk music band named the Avett brothers. The lyric goes, “ain’t it like most people… I’m no different…. We like to talk on things we don’t know about.”

Since Geroge Floyd’s death, I am struck by the number of people who get on television or radio or social media or in everyday conversation and talk on these things they don’t know about. It’s not helpful, in fact it’s divisive.

In my mind, there are plenty of African American men and women in police positions of authority. There are many activists in the communities championing the Black Lives Matter movement.

Representatives from these two sides should be the voices involved in discussing and recommending the changes necessary to begin a change in culture that moves toward a point where African Americans are not in fear of police encounters and police are not in fear during encounters with African Americans.

White mayors, councilmen, council women, governors, congressmen, senators, lawyers, news media and the rest of us need to step back and shut our mouths other than to support and facilitate the discussions that need to occur to get to the recommendations necessary to effect change.

Getting these recommendations and implementing them is the first step toward opening the broader topic of the relationship between white and African Americans that has sullied this country’s history since it began.

I’m making these posts to share my journey; to show how in my experience, our why shapes everything in our lives, whether we want it to or not. I hope the people who read take away something they can use to help themselves on their own journey.

I’ll be putting out these posts on a regular basis. If you would like to contact us, check out the rest of our website for more information on getting in contact with our firm, and our Facebook page. Check out our Vlogs section for our video content and make sure to like and subscribe to be regularly updated when we upload. Thanks for reading, and be well.

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