[Dryerase] The Alarm! Editorial, 7-12-02

[Alarm!Wires]

Hey all,

The following is our editorial for the issue we put out earlier this 
evening.  It is perhaps the most pertinent to folks outside of our 
region.  Enjoy!

Fhar


Do we live in a world of exceptions?
Last week when Donovan Jackson and his father were pulled over for 
expired tags on their vehicle neither expected to find themselves in the 
national headlines. Had it not been for the impulse of an amateur 
cameraman they wouldn’t have.
What was captured on camera shocked viewers: a 16-year-old being flung 
onto a police car and then brutally assaulted by an officer. According 
to reports, the footage comes after the bulk of the Inglewood incident 
had occured. Of course, there has been an outcry, as citizens of 
Inglewood and others demand the immediate termination of the officer in 
question. What does not come to the forefront in this incident is the 
need to examine our overall surroundings and institutions.
This week George W. Bush gave a speech addressing the recent 
wrong-doings of a number of corporations. He called the behavior of 
corporations, such as Enron and Worldcom, deplorable, and he outlined a 
need for stiffer penalties for those “caught” doing misdeeds. The 
markets did not respond favorably, and the general public changed the 
news station.
Two weeks ago a young mother was convicted of a hate-crime against an 
man of Arab descent. She faces three years in jail for running her 
vehicle into his, and then assaulting him on a San Jose street. Locally, 
there was minimal response.
All three of these incidents are treated as relatively isolated 
situations. When Donovan Jackson was assaulted by the officer in 
southern California, he was immediately compared to Rodney King. When 
Worldcom was found to be cooking their books, they were in the same 
company as Enron. When this woman in San Jose was convicted there were 
not immediate comparisons, and the response was simply a stern sigh. 
These are presented to us, the public, as isolated situations, as 
exceptions to our average expectations. But are they?
The fact of the matter is police aggression is a constant reality; 
corporations constantly fudge their books or act in ways that are less 
than ethical; and hate crimes are occurring everyday that are related to 
or independent of 9/11. Yet, these three events are said to be 
exceptions.
People often comment that if the “corrupt” exceptions within our society 
are rooted out, we will live in a “just and civil society.” What we need 
to recognize is that all of these “exceptions” are not isolated events; 
they are all a part of systematic issues within our society. As a matter 
of fact, when we identify these events as isolated, it distracts us from 
looking at systemic problems. These events are actually necessary to 
maintain the power of both capitalism and state over personal or 
community relationships, because they reinforce the ideology that the 
system works by rooting out such exceptions. This ideology creates an 
atmosphere where exploration into systemic issues does not occur; 
indeed, it creates safe harbor for these incidents to occur.
When people do not take notice of the police and their activities, some 
cops will act cavalier. When people invest their money and hope for the 
best, never checking up on their investments, corporations will give the 
bosses raises and inflate their actual earnings reports. When the 
general public allows for people to say and act as they wish towards 
anyone who is “not a true American,” we become a xenophobic society.
We have to awaken our senses and sensibilities. We need to recognize our 
role as members of a community, and become accountable to one another. 
Let corporate America pretend to be accountable to itself; it is our job 
to recognize that corporations are NOT a part of our communities. We 
need to look at what we invest in—corporations or communities.
Is there a tangible link between these three incidents I have mentioned 
above? There is the obvious link; these are our headlines. Then there is 
the implicit link; all of these incidents happen in an environment ripe 
with apathy. Once we recognize that each of these events are not 
exceptions to the status quo, but rather a result of the status quo, we 
can respond accordingly. It should not take the beating of a 
developmentally disabled young man to make us take notice—or maybe it 
does. Can the beating of Donovan Jackson bring about something better in 
our communities? Can we begin to look closely and become more 
accountable to one another; if not, we will never be members of a 
community.
—Michelle Stewart
 
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