A State of Emergency

I find it quite interesting these days that a lot of people want us to only focus on what the future will bring, to move forward and let’s not dwell on what happened in the past.  I find it even more amusing when they response to the questions about the future or moving forward.   Soon it becomes evident that the answers are empty or at best leaves you scratching your head all the while getting the runaround.     
   
What some people fail to realize is that what our future holds and our moving forward is more of what the past was full of.  If we learn nothing from the past, we are bound to repeat it.  And without a perspective of the road we have traveled, paths walked, steps taken, doors opened, setbacks, push-backs and headaches; then looking forward only gets us back to the place we started from.  It may be a different day, a new century, and even a younger generation... but it looks, sounds, fills, reads and smells the same.  And as my grandfather would say... if it walks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, and then it probably is a duck. 

For some people what is being said is good enough and they just buy in.  Others get tire of hearing the same old stuff over and over again and stop participating in the circles, town halls, community meetings and conversations.  And still others seem to understand the game and really know that regardless of who’s in control, it’s going to be the same-o...the same-o!  Sure, it may have a tweet here, a tuck there, a turn underneath or some new paint, but the results remain the same.   
           

And I don’t know if you realized of it or not, Milwaukee has made a number of top ten lists in recent years that are adversely affecting the city’s ability to become a place of economic growth and prosperity.  It is listed as the worst place to live for African Americans, most segregated city in America, highest in human sex trafficking and listed as the 7th  most dangerous city in America in 2015, to just name a few.  There is an urgent need to change these human-made disasters which cannot be blamed on a natural disaster or global warning.  From my view point, we qualify for a “State of Emergency” declaration.  That is what I see, how about you?