Fortune Cookie Solutions!
I am a West Wing fanatic. Best. Show. Ever.
There is a great scene in season 4 where Josh Lyman has his assistant, Donna, attend a "self-help" seminar in order to do some recon work on their political opponent. She returns with the info, and Josh discovers that this self-help guru (an advisor for the opponent) is taking extrordinarily complicated ideas from some of the greatest writers in history, and boiling them down into one-liners (often missing the point), much like the political platform of their opponent. He calls this method the "Fortune-Cookie Candidate."
The reality is that things aren't simple. Some problems don't have easy answers. In fact, most don't. If they had easy answers, then they wouldn't be problems.
The major challeges facing this world can't be solved by one-liners or campaign slogans meant to inspire hope (or instill fear). We need people with really big brains wrapping their arms around the true complexitiy of issues.
One example: The challenge of racial tension in America following the events of 2014.
Over the last few weeks, I have hosted one meeting, and attended another with ministers, police officers, and community leaders discussing this issue (especially in response to the events in Fergeson, New York, and Cleveland). I also attended an incredibly inspiring community MLK service last week. And with all of the discussions, I have been reminded that this is an incredibly complicated issue. There is no easy solution.
Here are just a few of the contributing factors:
Racism (both individual and institutional)
Insufficient/Misguided Training for Police Officers
Poor Education for young African-American men (our school system is failing to provide hope)
Drugs- Contributing to the loss of an entire generation of people.
Incarceration rates of African-American men
Mandatory Minimums (see above)
The proliferation of Guns, leaving police officers understanbly fearful.
Poverty- Again, hope is an important part of life and the cycle of poverty is debilitating.
Fractured Community- When relationships don't exist between racial/ethnic groups, then how is trust possible?
Culture of Violence- One too many Die Hard or Lethal Weapon movies (some of my favorites).
Media- Enough said.
Those are just a few of the many issues that contributed to the deaths of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and Tamir Rice. And, we should be both ashamed and outraged.
The issues facing this world are not simple. Thankfully, we have been endowed with the resources, wisdom, and energy to make progress....if we would stop shouting one-liners at each other.
I have had enough of fortune-cookie solutions! We need to attempt to wrap our minds, and our hearts, around the complexities of these challenges, not simply reducing them to two-dimensional caricatures of the multi-dimensional realities.
Progress is possible, but it's not easy. There are no magic wands. Rather, progress is a slow march...in the snow...with no shoes...uphill both ways.
But, as Tom Hanks said in A League of Their Own, "It's the hard that makes it great!"
We have to try. Really try. Not just pretend to try. We have to wrestle with issues in their incredible complexities, so that the relelntless march of progress doesn't end with us.
Because, this life matters...for young black men, for police officers, for you, for me....and for my children.
