Happy Valentine’s Day!

I have been thinking a lot about the YouTube video I posted earlier, “How Can We Win?” with the activist Kimberly Jones. I found it heartbreaking. I also watched her followup interview with Trevor Noah.

This was another episode in my education regarding systemic racism and how insidious this is.

I was particularly struck by her comment, “We have created the warrior cop instead of the guardian of the community that we deserve.”

I limit my exposure to the news, but I was curious about what the current administration is doing to address these issues. Early ideas of defunding the police sounded reactionary and untenable; however, I did read about the following, constructive measures being implemented:

— In general, Biden’s American Rescue Plan (ARP) gives cities and states historic levels of funding that they can use to put more cops on the beat, and invest in community-based violence prevention and intervention programs.

— In July, senior White House staff established the Community Violence Intervention (CVI) collaborative, a 16-jurisdiction cohort of mayors, law enforcement, CVI experts, and philanthropic leaders committed to using ARP funding or other public funding to increase investment in their community violence intervention infrastructure.

— The CVI is spending 18 months strengthening and scaling the jurisdictions’ community violence intervention infrastructure to reduce gun crime and promote public safety.

— National experts and federal agencies are providing training and technical assistance to help communities assess their existing public safety ecosystem, identify gaps, and build the capacity to expand programming that saves lives.

— Stemming the flow of firearms used to commit violence. I had never even heard of the “Iron Pipeline” before reading about Biden’s proposals.

— Expanding summer programming, employment opportunities, and other services and supports for teenagers and young adults.

— Helping formerly incarcerated individuals successfully reenter their communities.

And these things are already in process. It sounds hopeful. I feel that this is a gradual diminution in masculine ego energy: having to conquer, to win, to be on top. I say masculine and not male because it is not about gender, it is just the most contracted, negative, form of human energy as opposed to the more expansive compassion, inclusiveness and love at the other end. Happy Valentine’s Day!!