It wasn't enough to have a poorly managed government response to a pandemic. Nope, we had to have incredibly bad responses to protests about the death of George Floyd. I will sift through and look for glimmers of hope, but the police have done one thing quite well: demonstrate that the country has a severe police brutality problem.
It has a police entitlement problem. When cops in Buffalo resign from an emergency team after two of their own get suspended (not fired, just suspended) for assaulting an older protester, when cops in Philly have a blue flu protest, staying home, because, yes, Joey Bologna, a cop, was held responsible for acting brutally, when cops keep on assaulting reporters, legal advisers, and medics, it is not just a matter of a few bad cops. Organizational cultures are diseased, oversight structures are broken. The problem is systemic. As someone who studies civilian control of the military, I am utterly appalled at what the cops can do, defying their civilian masters. Intimidating them, as we see de Blasio in NYC caving in before, during, and after the police union doxxed his daughter.
And, of course, Trump, whose campaign started with racist appeals, inciting violence, has kept on keeping on. His photo op only succeeded in worsening civil-military relations by putting the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in an awful position. General Milley could have handled it better, but he should not have had to.
The good news is the protests are working--Trump is even less popular, the police have inadvertently fostered more support for police reform, people are openly talking about breaking police unions (easier to say now, still hard to do), and the opponents to all of this are on their backheels. The NFL got pushed by its players to reverse its stance on Kaepernick and other protesters.
We shall see if anything real comes from that, but it is notable.
And, yes, COVID-19 is still lurking. Many cities are starting to reach capacity in their ICU's, and the police are the disease's ally by ripping off people's masks, by sticking them in enclosed spaces, and by causing these people to have to continue to protest. The economies of Canada and the US are opening up. This will increase risk. I have no desire to spend time in any restaurants these days (although this week's events inspired me to try out a Black-owned Carribean place for takeout--and it was great).
The week was difficult for another reason. Mrs. Spew has had worse set of allergies this year than in previous years, and she had to go one of the few places in Ottawa that is treating respiratory stuff--a COVID testing centre--despite the fact that she did not have COVID. She did get tested for it, and, she does not have it. Well, not yet, but that experience may have increased the odds that she might catch it due to a three hour wait. So, no, Ontario and Ottawa are not handling this great. The Canadian COVID experiences are bimodal--Quebec and Ontario are having problems flattening the curve while BC has fought it quite well and the Maritimes have mostly dodged it. However, since most of the people reside in QC and ON, the national figures are not great.
I have had difficulty in hiring research assistants, but this is actually good news--that the co-op programs that employ so many NPSIA grad students are starting to kick into gear. The students may work at home (or not, it varies, I guess), but it means that they don't need my research grant money. This may inhibit my project, but it is good for them.
Other good news? Carleton continues to do the right things, making fast decisions to go online, and giving us the support we need to make our fall online experience much better than this winter's sudden entry into the digital classroom. I have started working on my 90 student upper division IR theory class with my co-teacher, David Hornsby (aka Associate VP of Teaching), with some fun ideas to make it work. There is also a growing collaboration among IR profs in Canada to share their stuff so that we do not all have to create stuff from scratch.
Events like these remind us that community is important, and there are all kinds of communities out there. My effort to have a civ-mil hang has taken off, so now I have to figure out how to manage it since it is a bit more complicated than saying "hey, let's all meet at the conference bar at such and such time." I think we are all thirsty for community, having been separated by quarantine. I know I am, which is why I have become a zoom organizer of poker games, tenure parties (congrats to Steph and Alex), aforementioned civ-mil hangoutts, and, alas, a wake.
In these difficult times, reach out. Tell those you love that you love them, that you miss them, that you appreciate them. For instance, I really appreciate my niece asking us to donate the present we were going to give her to a worthy BLM-related charity, so we did. She and her siblings and cousins have turned out to be amazing adults with big hearts and righteous impatience. Recent events remind me that sometimes you regret not doing so when you had the chance. And, yes, as Mr. Rogers reminds us, watch the helpers, like the folks in DC that let dozens of protesters into their homes to evade the pepper-spraying cops.
Be well, wash your hands, hug in person or virtually your loved ones, and Black Lives Matter.
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