Politics on Rana Station

 In last week’s post I promised to talk about politics on Rana Station this week. As I said in that post, I built the Station’s system on ideas garnered from decades of teaching, studying history, and observing our contemporary society.

Those experiences inspired the guiding question, What kind of environment would allow ALL of my students to reach their full potential?

Natural spaces offer many free-play options, which are good for kids. (uncredited photo from Community Playthings)

I’ve spent most of my career teaching both urban and rural students from lower-income areas. I knew our current system definitely wasn’t cutting it.

But the more I studied, the clearer it became that the problems were bigger than schools.

Children do well where everyone around them does too

Thriving children come from thriving communities with good safety nets and essential needs provided for. Unfortunately, the United States doesn’t have such a system. The Covid-19 pandemic has made that fact plainer than ever, and it was already painfully clear to anyone paying attention.

Members of White Coats for Black Lives demonstrate at a Black Lives Matter rally in June 2020. (Photo by Maria Khrenova/TASS/Getty, via Yes Magazine.)

When I taught in more well-off parts of Johnson County, Kansas, I saw places where many students did succeed. Those kids were never hungry. Most had excellent medical care. Their families enriched their backgrounds with travel, summer camp, outings museums, zoos, concerts, or other experiences.

Children still sometimes “fell through the cracks,” often for the same reasons inner-city or rural kids did. Only about 5.3% of Johnson Countians fall below the poverty line, but for those who do, services are sparse and mass-transit leaves much to be desired. But even kids from well-off homes could suffer from mental health issues, domestic violence, or drug habits that impacted all aspects of their lives.

How could Rana Station do better?

I didn’t build my fictitious space station to be a political manifesto. I knew from the start that I couldn’t geek out on “mastery learning,” decriminalization of addiction, restorative justice, or other pet ideas, and still write an entertaining science fiction mystery. (Instead, I opted to do that in blog posts. You’ve now been warned!)

A protester demonstrates in support of supervised injection sites in Philadelphia in December 2019. (Matt Rourke/AP, via Baltimore Sun.)

But I could write the station’s governmental system into the background of the action as a thought experiment. Insert ideas as they became appropriate. Discard things that slowed the narrative.

What’s different on Rana Station?

As I noted last week, I don’t believe in utopias. There’s no possibility of a “perfect system,” if it’s run by imperfect beings—and everyone’s an imperfect being. But we can try to do better than whatever our current system has become. That’s what I’ve tried to reflect in the politics on Rana Station.

I do believe strongly that diverse cultures foster a more resilient society, so I’ve tried to depict a variety of cultures and species in these books. There are four different kinds of sapient beings among Rana’s citizens.

I believe a diverse community builds in greater creativity and resilience. (Illustration by "Franzidraws.")

Ranan law and civic culture regards all backgrounds, body-colorations, family configurations, and cultures as equally acceptable. Readers of my two currently-published books know there’s no stigma attached to homosexuality. I have plans to expand that to other gender identities as well. My research goes forward, and as I learn, I hope to find good opportunities for representation.

My love of diversity “outs” me as a dedicated multiculturalist. Just don’t expect all this diversity not to generate differences of opinion. After all, emotions and conflict are the soul of good fiction.

Other than diverse sapient species, what’s different?

Many of the human characters live in large, extended families of relatives, in-laws, and sometimes friends who’ve become “family by choice.” Their residence towers are multi-household dwellings, kind of like an apartment building, only everyone’s a relative. Space to grow food is at a premium on Rana, so they build up, not out.

How do these large, extended families keep from killing each other? In part, cultural norms have grown up to govern “best practices” in extended-family dwellings. But some people just don’t thrive in these settings. They are free to move out—or sometimes the family decides to evict them. And for disagreements or mediation, they have Listeners.

Listeners on Rana Station are trained mental health specialists. Here, a more Earthbound child psychologist and a young girl talk.(Photo by Valerii Honcharuk.)

Listeners are trained psychologists and social workers. Like physicians and other physical-health-care professionals, They make up part of the health care infrastructure. Unlike in our contemporary USA, mental and physical health care is viewed as a universal right. So are access to food, education, and shelter.

What kind of system do the politics on Rana Station reflect?

Rana’s list of basic rights might seem to peg me as a socialist for some, although that would technically be incorrect. In my opinion, these are basic infrastructure elements that any reasonable government should provide.

A system that doesn’t supply essential benefits to the people who support it with their votes and taxes is pretty darn corrupt, in my opinion. Why have it, if it doesn’t benefit all of its citizens, including those experiencing hard times?

Unlike in the United States, food insecurity is virtually unknown on Rana Station. Here, a group gathers at the Acta no Verba Garden in Oakland, CA. (photo by Leonor Hurtado).

My sympathy for restorative justice and Summerhill-type “free schooling” might make some think I’m an anarchist at heart, but that’s not my philosophical home. Observant folk might also notice I didn’t “abolish” the Orangeboro Police Department, among other things.

The presence of a vigorous business community and varied personal-income levels on Rana Station might argue that I’m a capitalist. That’s probably accurate, although I regard capitalism in much the same way I do fire: uncontrolled, it can consume and destroy everything. Appropriately regulated, it can power widespread benefits.

Politics on Rana Station, and unintended consequences

If Rana sounds like a nice place to live, it might suit you in the way its founders (both fictional and me) hoped. But that warning about utopias holds, here.

The system has its weak links, failures, and faults. The Orangeboro cops and their counterparts on other parts of the Station find plenty of work to do. “Enemies, both foreign and domestic,” keep Rana’s leaders busy, as well.

And they open up lots of opportunities for stories I hope you and I can both enjoy.

IMAGE CREDITS:

Many thanks to Community Playthings, for the uncredited photo of the children at play. I'm grateful to Yes Magazine and photographer Maria Khrenova of TASS/Getty Images for the photo of White Coats for Black Lives demonstrators in New York last summer (June 2020). I appreciate the Baltimore Sun and photographer Matt Rourke/AP for the photo of the demonstrator who called for safe drug-use sites in Philadelphia last December (2019).

Thanks very much to 123RF for the "diverse community" illustration by Franzidraws, and for the photo of the psychologist working with the young girl, taken by Valerii Honcharuk. I also appreciate Food First and photographer Leonor Hurtado, for the photo of the community garden group from Oakland, CA.

How (and why) might we defund police?

It appears that when people say, "Defund the Police!" they often don't mean completely. They usually appear not to mean "dismantle the police force and don't replace it," although some do. 

I started examining the ideas of abolishing or defunding the police in the previous post on this blog.

Defund the Police, like Abolish the Police, is an arresting (sorry), but inadequate slogan. Like most ideas, if you take the logic to its farthest extreme, it's a terrible idea (hint: for real-life applications, never go to the farthest extreme). But people have begun to have valuable discussions about the way forward.

(Kevin Siers cartoon courtesy of Charlotte Observer/McClatchey)

Deciphering what they actually mean

In the simplest statements I've heard, the idea is to reallocate some funds from the local police department. Then to spend them building up departments that would be more appropriate responders to certain kinds of situations. Police solutions often end with someone arrested or ticketed, possibly taken to jail. That's appropriate for some things, but not for others.

For example, if it's a mental health crisis, deploy some kind of mental health equivalent of EMTs (and yes, I know we don't have those yet). This would radically reduce the number of incidents in which a mentally ill person in crisis (but mostly a danger only to themselves) isn't confronted, further agitated, and then eventually killed by police.

Another example we often hear cited is when police are called to deal with persons experiencing homelessness. What do these people need? Certainly a better place to live. Many also need mental health counseling, physical health care, possibly addiction treatment, additional education so they can find a job, or other services. What can police do about them? Usually none of those things. They can arrest them, or force them to go somewhere else. That's pretty much it.

(Illustration courtesy of Aleksey Weintraub, @LAKUTIS via Twitter)

Why many say policing itself needs a re-think

Diversity training is only as good as the trainer who teaches, and the personal investment of the people who show up. Until individual officers take the messages to heart--and until there's greater diversity and cross-cultural understanding in most police departments, cultural clashes will continue to fuel bad outcomes.

If the overall culture of the department doesn't change (and changing police culture is an uphill climb), street-level outcomes won't, either. Many American police are actively trained to distrust their communities, and to believe every encounter could end in violence against them. They are taught to "fear for their lives" almost as a default-setting. The "warrior" mindset of increased police militarization isn't helping any of us.

Even when radical overhauls happen, there's often still a gap between desire and result. It's discouraging. But allowing ourselves to feel defeated and saying, "I give up" isn't a sustainable solution. Sweeping problems (and problem officers) under the rug doesn't work. Perpetuating and doubling-down on "how we've always done things" doesn't cut it. We've been doing that for decades, and the results keep getting more extreme.

A city worker power-washes "Defund the Police" from the road outside the Atlanta Police Department, after the protests in Atlanta. When the protests subside, will calls for reform be as easy to erase or ignore? (Photo by Alyssa Pointer/Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

What is policing supposed to do?

It gets down to questioning the very purpose of policing. Why do we have police? To keep public order, so we feel safer in our neighborhoods? To respond to (or ideally limit/prevent) crimes such as murder, assault, rape, fraud, and similar invasions of property and person? 

Do they have a role in limiting vandalism, truancy, and roving bands of unoccupied youths, or should other programs address those ills?

Do we want police to prioritize our privacy and personal autonomy at the expense of the privacy and personal autonomy of others? How much governmental intrusion is acceptable, and are we okay with knowing that some people experience more heavy-handed treatment than others?

De-criminalizing our society

Many proposals start with a laundry-list of things to de-criminalize. I've already mentioned de-criminalizing homelessness in this article. A strong case also can be made for de-criminalizing addiction and drug possession. 

Much is made, in gun-violence arguments, of the urgent need for better mental health services. Yet we are a very long way from de-criminalizing mental illness and creating a robust safety net of mental health services.

De-criminalizing poverty is another consideration. We could do this in part by examining all proposed statutes, civil codes, and local ordinances to see which disproportionately afflict poor people. Another good starting place might be not over-policing poor and minority neighborhoods.

Decriminalizing addiction, drug use and other "offenses" that could better be handled by other agencies would also free up jail space (Barrie Maguire cartoon courtesy of the Philadelpha Inquirer).

Where do we go from here?

Some"de-fund" arguments focus, not on policing itself, but on problems that perpetuate the conditions that encourage crime. 

Even before the pandemic threw them into glaring prominence, inequalities in educational opportunities, in health care, in food security and economic opportunity were major concerns. So it's not surprising inequities claim prominent places on many people's "to-reform" lists. Yet all of those things get less money from local governments than policing. Many cities' biggest budget item is its public safety budget.

Some observers fear we're rushing into things with half-baked approaches to revamping police forces or radically altering them. Others fear we'll only use half-measures, then reluctant politicians will have an "out" to declare, "well, that didn't work!" a few weeks or years from now.

But what if we were really serious about this? What if we actually tried a well-thought-out plan to readjust the way we do social well-being, including efforts to ensure law, order, and justice for everyone? For real.

I think we're all still trying to figure out how that would look. But next week in this space, I'll take a stab at relating my own vision and thoughts to my stories about policing in the future on Rana Station.

IMAGE CREDITS:

Many thanks to the Charlotte Observer/McClatchey, for the Kevin Siers cartoon. The "Defund the Police Teapot" illustration is from Aleksey Weintraub, @LAKUTIS via Twitter. It appears to be a clever adaptation of a photo of an actual, multi-spout teapot from Tea Exporter India (now a defunct link) via Alobha Exim's Pinterest board. The photo of the city worker power-washing the street in front of the Atlanta Police Department is by the formidable Alyssa Pointer of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution The remarkable Barrie Maguire (who also did a stint at Kansas City's own Hallmark) is a marvelous fine-art painter of Irish-inspired work, but he also created cartoons for the Philadelphia Inquirer for a while, including this one dramatizing prison overcrowding.

Women do not owe you

The Artdog Image of Interest

August is a month when many students start back to school--many in new schools. I'm dedicating my Images of Interest for the next several weeks to a reminder that as young girls grow into young women, whether they're in public or private schools or in college, they often are subject to gender-based street harassment--catcalls, comments on their looks, etc. They don't need this grief, but all too many experience it.

Tatyana Fazlalizadeh, Women do not owe you their time or conversation.

This month's Images of Interest are dedicated to those maturing girls and young women, as a reminder that we adults in the community have a responsibility to call out harassment wherever it manifests. I am deeply grateful to artist Tatyana Fazlalizadeh, whose whose work I featured last March.

In this month of Back to School and Women's Equality day, I'm delighted to share more of her "Stop Telling Women to Smile" public art project.

IMAGE: Many thanks to artist Tatyana Fazlalizadeh and her "Stop Telling Women to Smile" public art project, and to Katherine Brooks's Huffington Post article, for this image.

Not seeking your validation

The Artdog Image of Interest

August is a month when many students start back to school--many in new schools. I'm dedicating my Images of Interest for the next several weeks to a reminder that as young girls grow into young women, whether they're in public or private schools or in college, they often are subject to gender-based street harassment--catcalls, comments on their looks, etc. They don't need this grief, but all too many experience it.

Tatyana Fazlalizadeh, Women are not seeking your validation.

This month's Images of Interest are dedicated to those maturing girls and young women, as a reminder that we adults in the community have a responsibility to call out harassment wherever it manifests. I am deeply grateful to artist Tatyana Fazlalizadeh, whose whose work I featured last March.

In this month of Back to School and Women's Equality day, I'm delighted to share more of her "Stop Telling Women to Smile" public art project.

IMAGE: Many thanks to artist Tatyana Fazlalizadeh and her "Stop Telling Women to Smile" public art project, and to Katherine Brooks's Huffington Post article, for this image.

My outfit is not an invitation

The Artdog Image of Interest

August is a month when many students start back to school--many in new schools. I'm dedicating my Images of Interest for the next several weeks to a reminder that as young girls grow into young women, whether they're in public or private schools or in college, they often are subject to gender-based street harassment--catcalls, comments on their looks, etc. They don't need this grief, but all too many experience it.

Tatyana Fazlalizadeh, My outfit is not an invitation.

This month's Images of Interest are dedicated to those maturing girls and young women, as a reminder that we adults in the community have a responsibility to call out harassment wherever it manifests. I am deeply grateful to artist Tatyana Fazlalizadeh, whose whose work I featured last March.

In this month of Back to School and Women's Equality day, I'm delighted to share more of her "Stop Telling Women to Smile" public art project.

IMAGE: Many thanks to artist Tatyana Fazlalizadeh and her "Stop Telling Women to Smile" public art project, and to Katherine Brooks's Huffington Post article, for this image.

"I Deserve to be Respected"

The Artdog Image of Interest

August is a month when many students start back to school--many in new schools. I'm dedicating my Images of Interest for the next several weeks to a reminder that as young girls grow into young women, whether they're in public or private schools or in college, they often are subject to gender-based street harassment--catcalls, comments on their looks, etc. They don't need this grief, but all too many experience it.

Tatyana Fazlalizadeh, Yo Merezco ser Respetada, "I Deserve to be Respected."

This month's Images of Interest are dedicated to those maturing girls and young women, as a reminder that we adults in the community have a responsibility to call out harassment wherever it manifests. I am deeply grateful to artist Tatyana Fazlalizadeh, whose whose work I featured last March.

In this month of Back to School and Women's Equality day, I'm delighted to share more of her "Stop Telling Women to Smile" public art project.

IMAGE: Many thanks to artist Tatyana Fazlalizadeh and her "Stop Telling Women to Smile" public art project for this image.

A young woman's worth

The Artdog Image of Interest

August is a month when many students start back to school--many in new schools. I'm dedicating my Images of Interest for the next several weeks to a reminder that as young girls grow into young women, whether they're in public or private schools or in college, they often are subject to gender-based street harassment--catcalls, comments on their looks, etc. They don't need this grief, but all too many experience it.

Tatyana Fazlalizadeh, My Worth extends far Beyond my Body

This month's Images of Interest are dedicated to those maturing girls and young women, as a reminder that we adults in the community have a responsibility to call out harassment wherever it manifests. I am deeply grateful to artist Tatyana Fazlalizadeh, whose work I featured last March.

In this month of Back to School and Women's Equality day, I'm delighted to share more of her "Stop Telling Women to Smile" public art project.

IMAGE: Many thanks to artist Tatyana Fazlalizadeh and her "Stop Telling Women to Smile" public art project for this image.

The spirit of Stonewall

The Artdog Image(s) of Interest

I moved the posting schedule around some, when I realized that June 28 is the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots. Like the 75th anniversary of D-Day, the 50th anniversary of Stonewall Means Something. As Ben Power put it in The Rainbow Times, "Stonewall was the flashpoint that gave painful birth to the modern LGBTQ Rights Movement"

In honor of the occasion, I've been diving into history. It's given me a new perspective on the spirit of Stonewall. It's also given me a new respect (read that awe) for the courage of the folks who threw punches at the Mafia-controlled NYC police outside the Stonewall Inn that morning

Small side note: I set this post to go live at 3:00 a.m., the time the police raid that started the riot reportedly began.

In the course of my life I've been friends and/or acquaintances with enough smart, funny, amazing, creative people who get classified within the LGBTQIA+ rainbow to realize they're really not abnormal-in-a-negative-way at all. Nor are they as rare as some would have you believe.

Unusual, yes. Frequently. It's one of the things I love best about these friends: their creativity.

A man named Vin Testa celebrated outside the Supreme Court in 2015, when the court ruled that the Constitution protects same-sex marriage. Photo by Zach Gibson/New York Times.

But one thing's certain: my friends would be far less free to be their smart, funny, amazing, creative, unusual selves if there hadn't been massive strides made since Stonewall. Sadly, however, despite the fact that we now have marriage equality and an openly gay man is in the top tier of Democratic Presidential contenders, we do not live in an LGBTQIA+ friendly world.

Most of the societies that contributed children to the great experiment that is the United States of America were repressing and hating and killing LGBTQIA+ people just as virulently and for a far longer time period than we enslaved black people. 

Nor are we doing enough to make it clear once and for all that we repudiate those attitudes. Lately, we seem to be losing ground! But this is not the time to quit.

May the spirit of Stonewall rock on!

IMAGE CREDITS: Many thanks to Queer Projections, for the "Take a moment to remember" photo/design, and to Zach Gibson and the New York Times for access to the photo outside the Supreme Court.

Catcall and response

The Artdog Image(s) of Interest

Have you ever been walking down a city street, especially past a construction site, and heard somebody yell, "Hey, baby! Gimme a smile!" or similar stuff? If you've ever been a woman--particularly a young woman--you have. Guaranteed. Probably daily. (If you're a man, then probably not, and you may not see what's wrong with it).

Tatyana Fazlalizadeh, Stop Telling Women to Smile

While the occasional inexperienced country girl may mistake these catcalls for harmless flattery on first exposure, it soon becomes clear that the objectifying intent is neither harmless nor benign. Day after day, the merciless barrage can drag you down.

Tatyana Fazlalizadeh, My Name is not Baby 

It's recognized more properly as street harassment--and NO, women don't like it. But what can be done, right? Most of us just duck our heads and keep walking.

Tatyana Fazlalizadeh, Harassing women does not prove your masculinity

Enter Tatyana Fazlalizadeh, and her "Stop Telling Women to Smile" public art campaign. All those things you so wish you could say to harassers? She says them. With large public art displays, right out there in the harassers' space on the streets.

Tatyana Fazlalizadeh, Critiques on my Body are not Welcome

Fazlalizadeh has illustrated her messages with the faces of women she knows, women whose lives are impinged upon daily by these assaults. Her images empower all of us, not only her friends.

Tatyana Fazlalizadeh, Women are not Outside for your Entertainment

She speaks what all of us wish we could, in a way that few can mistake.

Which speak best for you? Please make comments below!

IMAGES: Many thanks to the Huffington Post, for the image at the top. Deepest gratitude to Katherine Brooks's  2017 Huffington Post article, "Public Art Project Addresses Gender-Based Street Harassment in a Big Way," for My name is not Baby, Critiques on my Body are not Welcome, and Women are not Outside for your Entertainment; and honor and props to  Tatyana Fazlalizadeh and her "Stop Telling Women to Smile" page, for Harassing women does not prove your masculinity. I plan to feature more of these posters in future Images of Interest.

What is poverty, and what should we think of the poor?

The Artdog Quote(s) of the Week

We celebrated Human Rights Day last week, but human rights should be part of our values every day, all year long. As noted in last week's quote, housing is listed in Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as one of the fundamentals. Yet homelessness is a widespread phenomenon, both in the USA and around the world.

IMAGES: Many thanks to Nyamnyam via Pinterest, for the quote-image from Bryan Stevenson. Unfortunately, Nyamnyam.mobi doesn't seem to exist anymore. I did find a Nyamnyam.net that appears to come from a similar place philosophically. You might enjoy their page. Many thanks also to QuoteHD (also here), for the Sheila McKechnie quote-image (see also her foundation), and to Liberals are Cool via Summer Rain, for the "Poverty is not a lack of character" quote-image.

Deserts and Swamps: a closer look at food insecurity

The Artdog Image of Interest

Do you know what a food desert is? What about a food swamp? Do you live near one?

They exist in all kinds of places, including rural areas, where you really wouldn't expect them--but viewing an area in terms of food deserts and food swamps is a way to key in on some root causes of food insecurity.

We can join in the effort to fight this trend. First, support community gardens, and efforts to bring farmers markets to low-income areas near you. A quick Internet-search should offer local options.

Also, pay attention to how poverty-stricken communities in your area are treated. I really hope you'll encourage your civic leaders to remember that poor people are people. People with rights, like everyone else. It's a myth that most are lazy or poor because they made bad choices. Most people who are born into poverty must overcome huge obstacles to climb out of it.

Another good way to fight food deserts and swamps is to advocate for programs such as SNAP, the US government's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which is part of the Farm Bill, renewed every five years (including now!).

And in the meantime, contribute to local food banks. Again, they're only an Internet search away.

This infographic may be focused on a particular region, but it's instructive as an example in a broader sense, offering a snapshot of the problem's impact.

IMAGES: Many thanks to AZ Quotes for the quote image featuring author Michael Pollan, and to Brown is the New Pink blog, for passing along the infographic on food deserts and swamps.

What is food insecurity?

The Artdog Image(s) of Interest 

November is the month of Thanksgiving, a traditional celebration of feasting in the United States (several other countries also celebrate Thanksgiving days of one sort or another). We traditionally think of this as a time of harvest, of feasting, and of plenty.

But for much of the world, much of the time--including in our own USA--food on the table isn't a "given" at all, and "plenty" is an abstract concept. My Images of Interest for the rest of the month will examine aspects of food insecurity and ways to address it, both at home and abroad.

IMAGES: Many thanks to Hunger Free, via World Vision's Pinterest page, for the illustrated quote from Norman Borlaug, and to the Australian organization Foodwise, via Ecologic Media's Pinterest page, for the attractive and informative infographic on food insecurity.

How sick are we?

The Artdog Quote of the Week 

I find it difficult to understand how people can disagree with this, but there's a whole bunch out there who apparently do. And who also manage to sleep just fine at night. There's got to be a better way.

IMAGE: Many thanks to Charlie Gaines' "Union Stuff" Board on Pinterest for this image. Also to the late Cesar Chavez.

Disorders

This post is late, and it will have to be short. Disorders of several sorts have beset close family members in recent days, and as a result a certain level of personal chaos reigns. When such things happen in our personal lives, we may feel as if we've been run over.

Photo by Ryan M. Kelly - The Daily Progress/AP

But actually being run over is much, much worse. We have glimpsed recent new horror (including synagogue congregants, holed up in fear while Nazis marched outside in American streets) in Charlottesville, VA, where "all sides" did not contribute to the public disorder in equal measure, no matter who desperately wishes to believe otherwise.

AP Photo by Pablo Martinez Monsivais

Anger does beget anger. Confederate monuments and statues all across the country have become targets in reaction to the white supremacists in Charlottesville.

Image source: WNCN-TV video screenshot, via The Blaze.

In such an environment it's difficult not to wonder if the world has gone mad--or if perhaps we have. Patience is hard to find. Perspective is hard to find. Just as it's hard to keep one's head in a mob, so it's hard to keep one's eyes on core values.

But that is our current national test.

IMAGES: Many thanks to CNN, photographer Ryan M. Kelly of The Daily Progress and AP for the photo of the horrific impact of a car into a crowd of peaceful counter-protesters in Charlottesville, to Los Angeles ABC Channel 7, Pablo Martinez Monsivais and AP for the photo of President Trump making a statement about Charlottesville, and to The Blaze and WNCN-TV for a pictorial article about the destruction of a confederate monument in Durham, North Carolina.