Lyle Northey (Silent/Boomer)

    It is sad that entire departments would walk out but I suppose that even the Police can feel that they are being mistreated. When we look at the recent history in some departments we see that a very cavalier attitude has been adopted and that instead of serving the community the feeling is “them or Us”. Is this what has brought about the issues in Seattle?

    Have there been a few too many cases of excess force or shoot first and think of a way to justify it afterwards? Police officers that believe like Donald Trump that they are above the law need to be replaced. If immigrant candidates are who apply and they qualify then why not put them on the street. They probably harbor far fewer preconceived ideas of who to contact  than the ones leaving. The other issue is that this is a nation of immigrants some have just been here a while longer.

    The people that were born elsewhere and have come here have either been welcomed because they were needed or vilified because someone felt they were here to steal jobs, or they were criminals, or different. Look at history and you will find this true of the Irish that came here during the potato famine, the Chinese that came to build the railroads, the Mexicans that have come to harvest fruit. There is always someone to make an issue of why they are here and tell you they have come because they are ________ pick your term. 

    All kinds of things have been attributed to them and all sorts of things have been done to them because they came. They have been killed, had their children taken from them, put in jail for no reason, and that is just three of the punishments they have been given because they came here. 

    These issues are but a couple of our on going turmoil of what is or isn’t good for us. Now we have religion back in public schools, at least in one state, soon to be followed by others. The issue of drafting for the military and drafting women is again being debated.

   Examine that one for a minute and then try to make a case for drafting women. Laws have been struck down regarding the right to choose to have a baby or not. Women’s health, their right to vote, place in society all have been put back on the table as pawns in a chess game. Now comes the idea to draft women and do we make them equal or are the intentions to have them in the ranks as maids or as I heard one guy say, “Every platoon needs a whore”. Get real if the current propaganda preaches that the highest destiny a woman can attain is to die to give birth if you are a woman would you want to be drafted?

   Other nations have a policy of drafting women and for good or bad they are treated as equal to the men they serve with. Note to legislators, the needs of the nation and the Constitutional operation of this nation are not found while your sitting in church reading the bible or while your head is up your backsides looking for your glasses. Women currently serve in the military and have done so for many years so if we need to reinstitute the draft then it makes sense to draft women as well. 

   Here is the kicker, if you cannot offer equal treatment in all matters then we have a problem that seems to be most notable in a certain segment of the population and that segment is older, wealthy white men that sit in seats of power. It would seem the time has come to look for intelligent, compassionate and forward thinking younger people to fill those seats of power. We need legislators that are not corrupt by bias, ego or excessive wealth. Checks need to be put back into the system to ensure that issues are resolved for the common good not a for profit reason.