I'VE GOT SOME BOOKS FOR YOU! If you missed my discussion with Jonathan Dickerson yesterday, you really should check it out here. During the conversation we were talking about books that white people might want to read to get a better understanding of the black experience. Jonathan's wife Stacy, who is white, has a whole library to choose from and Jonathan was kind enough to send over a list. Here you go:
Books to Get you Started:
I'm Still Here - Austin Channing Brown
Be the Bridge - LaTasha Morrison
The Third Option - Miles McPherson
White Fragility - Robin DiAngelo
Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor - Layla F. Saad
Waking Up White - Debby Irving
Born a Crime - Trevor Noah
The Warmth of Other Suns -Isabel Wilkerson
White Awake - Daniel Hill
So you Want to Talk About Race - Ijeoma Oluo
Eloquent Rage - Brittany Cooper
Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria - Beverly Daniel Tatum
The New Jim Crow - Michelle Alexander
Picking Cotton - Jennifer Thompson-Cannino
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks -Rebecca Skloot
How to Be an Antiracist - Ibram X. Kendi
Stamped From the Beginning - Ibram X. Kendi
Just Mercy - Bryan Stevenson
Small Great Things (Fiction) - Jodi Picoult
Hood Feminism - Mikki Kendall
Ghost Boys - Jewell Parker Rhodes
This Book is Anti-Racist - Tiffany Jewell
Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community - Martin Luther King Jr.
Movies to watch:
13th
When They See Us
Just Mercy
ONE FAMILY WITH A WHOLE BUNCH OF MENTAL ILLNESS CHANGED THE STUDY OF SCHIZOPHRENIA And they lived in the Springs for a long time. Robert Kolker's new book HIDDEN VALLEY ROAD: Inside the Mind of an American Family tells the tale of a family of 12 kids, six of whom ended up wth schizophrenia. I'm halfway through it and it is fascinating. Buy it by clicking here and he's on at 1 to discuss it.
I MAY SEE MYSELF IN THIS STORY
JON CALDARA TALKS TRUTH ABOUT POLICE UNIONS And how they protect bad cops from being fired. Read this column for more on how unions prevent police forces from firing cops who are trouble. The most interesting part of how FEW cops draw LOTS of complaints. Data shows those cops are far more likely to violate someone's civil rights at some point. But it's damn near impossible to fire them. I got an email from a woman who asked me to reconsider my stance on police unions, which is pretty much lock step with Jon's. Her email said that the police union also defends cops who have been accused in the media of a crime they did not commit, which is true. However, as long as they continue to harbor and protect officers who are not fit to do the job, they are part of the problem imo.
DEMOCRATS IN COLORADO WANT MORE OF YOUR MONEY And they are cooking up so many ways to raise taxes it's mind blowing. This after they have expanded programs with huge price tags, like all day kindergarten. Most Coloradans will be fine with raising taxes "on the rich" I'm sure, but don't think there is enough money there. They also want to jack up your property taxes. Renters, your landlord WILL pass that increase along to you. They will come for you too. Trust me on this. It's only a matter of time.
IF YOU WOULDN'T SAY IT IN A ROOMFUL OF PEOPLE DON'T SAY IT ONLINE And by a roomful of people I mean people who don't agree with your worldview. The Lyons Fire Chief is out of a job after he made some impertinent comments about spraying protesters with fire hoses. People need to understand that social media is ANYTHING but private and if you wouldn't say it out loud don't say it online. And ANYTHING you post on a "private" page can be screenshotted and shared, as this now former Chief found out.
AREN'T WE ALL THIS EXCITED TO SEE OURSELVES ON TV? I kind of love this dog.
HOW ABOUT A LITTLE WISDOM FROM A 109 YEAR OLD VETERAN? Richard Overton lived three more years before passing away in 2018. This is a great video about him before he passed.
DENVER'S CITY COUNCIL COMMUNIST MOVES TO STRIP POWER FROM THE MAYOR And this will be interesting. Councilwoman Candi CdeBaca is proposing to take hiring authority for over a dozen high level administrative positions away from the Mayor. The Mayor would be able to nominate candidates, but the City Council would have to approve them. We'll see how this turns out.
A NEW BILL AND TED MOVIE IS ON THE WAY And I'm not sure yet. I'm just not sure. But here is the trailer
LOOKING FOR A LIVE COP SHOW? GOOD LUCK. Cops and Live PD are shows the depict cops doing their jobs. Now both shows have been shelved. Paramount removed old episodes of Cops and A+E has pulled episodes of it's hit live docuseries Live PD and isn't sure when or if it will return. I think this is a bad move.
SPEAKING OF COPS, I GOT THIS EMAIL YESTERDAY From a police officer who just wanted to share. He's given me permission to share his essay about being a cop. Here it is in it's entirety:
I am a police officer
For those who don't know it's a long Journey that moment you decide "that's what you want to do." While my story is not like others it's pretty typical of what an average person does to put on the badge put on the uniform and go to work for the people.
First You have to be accepted into a Police Academy. You fill out an entire Packet Full of a criminal history most likely an essay and information on why you want to take this journey.
The lucky ones move on to the next step they get accepted into the Academy. In my Academy I choose to put myself through pay the school tuition, the equipment fees, the other cost that it takes to get through the Academy. Roughly I spent about $12,000. For 9 months I went through a course schedule Which includes 5 days a week in class/training about 45 hrs per week for 9 months. On top of that I had to pay my normal bills. I luckily had a job that still allowed me to work part time on average I was working 30 additional hours to make my bills. I was the lucky one I lived in a student housing complex for the Academy. 9 hard months training, Reading law books (Colorado and Federal),Test, physical skills. At the end of that long 9 months The post certification.
The post certification is the document that says I work as a law enforcement officer any where in the state. But that's only the beginning part.
Now go find a job
You start by filling out that application packet maybe a little more in depth and you start all over again. Once you put that application in for maybe 1 or 2 departments then you go through their testing. This test usually include a written test, physical test, psychological test, takes about a month to go through one testing process for 1 department. You have to balance your schedule and balance your life because you may be going through 3 testing processes at the same time.
Ok You're lucky and a department moves you into backgrounds not so fast you don't have the job yet. I want you to think of a background packet. Start when you're 10 years old every single thing you've done you have to put that in that background packet for that background investigator to fully investigate you nothing is private. You put down your references but then that background investigator goes deeper Hes going to contact All the people in your life that have had an impact Even people who you don't even like you're being investigated.
Now get hooked up to a machine yeah that lie detector test. Now you're going to be Interrogated. It's the Most unnerving feeling Frankly you feel like a bag guy.
Well congratulations if you moved on to that next step you have the job. Now you go through another month of training getting to learn that department how they want you to do things all of those things that they want you to learn to make you a good police officer for that department.
The most hardest part is FTO. FTO stands for field training officer. It's usually a 4 stage process. It is the most stressful time period of the whole thing. Have you ever had a boss just sit there and watch you Evaluate you judge everything you're doing that is what FTO is 100%. Every second every minute your being graded. Hopefully you get through that process if you don't You have to start off all over again.
Today I'm happy to say I work for a department and I was able to get through my field training process. I Was able to gain that title of police officer. Now That's not the final step for a period of about a year you're going to be on a probationary. Where for no reason of all a department can dismiss you from the process.
While you're lucky to get through the process you're lucky to get that title now you have to go through the real work. You have to go through your day. Being a police officer is not easy you have to see people on their worst day of their lives. The Horrors of societee that you have to see on a day-to-day. You have people who want to defund us take away money we need for equipment for things we need to help us do the job. One mistake and police officer can lose his/her life or the life of another. Lose a career lose everything he/She has worked hard to get. Being a police officer Is not easy. And now you have legislators Who say its for law enforcement accountability. I'm sorry but all the good law enforcement officers do not want bad officers out there tarnishing the name what we all had worked so hard to achieve. One cop That does something terrible in Minneapolis does not represent law enforcement as a whole. This Bill going through the Colorado legislator right now will make it harder for every department to hire new people to hire people to pass on the traditions of good law enforcement.
I am asking people to not judge law enforcement as a whole but judge us as individuals we are people we have families we all come from different backgrounds. In the end I want people to understand you can not defend us you can not hurt us financially we are trying our best but one bad cop does not represent all law enforcement please hear me please be calm all lives matter it doesn't matter who's life it is all life matters.
MOVIE THEATERS ARE RE OPENING! The big question is: will you go? AMC says they are going to re open in July.
TYRANTS DEMAND ANYONE WHO DISAGREES BE FIRED And this one is at the University of Chicago. In the economics department.