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Twin Town High (vol. 8) |
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Is it right?
Wednesday 03 December @ 14:33:47 |
 by Tony Bouza
A lot of wasted years in public life taught me some rough lessons. They insinuated themselves with torturous inroads into my weakened imagination. The principal one was to simply ask, “Is it right?”
Think of America’s might—whence its power? might? money? realpolitik? I don’t think so. I think it is the notion of freedom. It is the power of our ideas.
America represents human dignity and the promise of growth unfettered by considerations of the views of censors or societal controllers.
It is America’s culture that sweeps all before it. It is America’s ideas that animate the imaginations of the world’s shirtless.
And the lessons of Vietnam, for example? That hubris and reliance on power are futile and bankrupt ideas. And we were led to this quagmire by the best and the brightest.
And shock and awe?
Ah, yes. Another touch of hubris. Only now nobody wants to acknowledge the body bags of our sons and daughters. Arriving corpses are sheltered from shameful view. What a lovely mirage.
In the police world, I regularly encountered folks looking for favors—seeking an edge. They might be bosses, patrons, clients, underlings—whatever. The constant was the face in front of me seeking advantage.
Who was absent?
The people.
That amorphous mass that attends no conferences, that is invited to no deal making. Yet, they are present. It is their interests that are whittled away by the schemes.
“The good of the people is the chief law.”—Cicero. When I read that I thought, “Ummm, could it be true?”
And, then, I tried deciding issues on that basis. Was it good for the people? Were their interests protected? Usually the person petitioning sought a slice of the public weal for his/her private profit, “Who’d miss that piddling bit?”
Thus are the people’s interests sliced like metaphorical salamis—virtually unnoticed, yet the ultimate cumulative effects finally come clear.
Once I stopped to reflect that I was there to do “the people’s business,” decisions flowed easily. Folks even stopped asking.
Public life became simplicity itself. Certainly there were frustrated ambitions, but did life ever get easy.
I often wondered why the Robert McNamaras hadn’t asked, “Is it right?”
I never wondered why cynical practitioners of realpolitik (think Henry Kissinger, who, of all people in America, you’d think, ought to appreciate the miracles of our freedom) would know better.
Pity.
And isn’t it edifying how, once caught in the cookie jar, these moguls express mystifying ignorance over the practices of enterprises they directed. How at odds with their professions of competence, knowledge, caring and even “the vision thing” in their annual reports, economic news, interviews and reports to shareholders. And the orchestration of wifely appearances—faithfully beside their accused husbands (although Martha Stewart struck a blow for feminism by making it to the dock) as they manage the aftermath of the perp walk—is modern drama at its most theatrical.
There is even calculation in spousely absences as crafty lawyers keep exotic arm candy from covetous eyes.
The people really do matter.
“Is it right?” is more than just a question, it is a key to functioning in life. America is going down the tubes because the question isn’t being asked.
Former Minneapolis Chief of Police, Tony Bouza
But, of course, it’s all really about sex, money and power, and they’ve all learned their lessons in corporate suites. Think Enron, Tyco, World Com or whatever. All working on trophy—usually second or more—wives and harvesting ill-gotten gains in wheelbarrows. And the whistle-blowers? Few and far between, and they don’t fare well.
And aren’t they all—these chieftains—ready to serve the people? Oh yes—except when military service is inconveniently dangerous (that’s when they let the minorities have the jobs), or when serving might get in the way of profit (think Henry Kissinger’s turn-down of the 9/11 Commission Chair because it meant revealing the identities of corporate clients), or get in the way of pocket lining.
A simple question. Not much to ask for—especially from folks who’ve profited so grandly from America’s largesse. They—those in power—identify treason in others, wrap themselves in the flag and denounce dissent. Thomas Paine had it right: “summer soldiers and sunshine patriots.”
The fate of the nation hinges on the preservation of our values—freedom, justice and integrity. The future of America will not be decided by the Patriot Act but, rather, by our commitment to, or abandonment of, our belief in social, economic and racial justice.
“Is it right?” is more than an empty phrase.
Tony Bouza is a former Minneapolis police chief and Bronx police force commander, and author of several controversial books on policing, including his most recent, Police Unbound: Corruption, Abuse, and Heroism by the Boys in Blue
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