Heather’s been doing a “pre-soccer” class on Saturday mornings. I’ve tried a few times to get some pictures, but apparently I’m terrible at sports photography. These represent my third attempt and they’re still not particularly good, but they’ll have to do.
I don’t really have much more to say, so enjoy!
I’ve been meaning to write this blog post for a while, but haven’t been able to figure out how to state it correctly. But it needs to be written and I’ll try my best.
The role of police should be to keep people alive so the justice system can attempt to do its job.
Our country has had too many examples in recent history of police officers escalating situations until some needless tragedy occurs. But there are examples of “doing it right” as well.
One example, in particular, of the wrong outcome comes to mind: the LAPD manhunt, standoff, and killing of Christopher Dorner in 2013. Dorner was a suspect in the murder of several people including members of law enforcement. Police eventually surrounded Dorner in a rural cabin. Police used equipment to knock down most of the walls of the cabin and then launched pyrotechnic tear gas canisters into the cabin setting it on fire after which Dorner shot himself in the head. The police defend the use of the pyrotechnic tear gas canisters as “their only option.”
Dorner now will not stand trial and it appears that officers were acting out of anger rather than a duty to uphold the law. It’s hard to believe that maintaining a safety cordon and “waiting him out” was somehow an impossible option.
On the other hand, the Boston Police provided a better example of carrying out their duties in a more professionally detached manner during the manhunt and capture of the Boston Marathon bombers also in 2013. Once Tsarnaev was located hiding in a boat, police surrounded the area. One officer, unfortunately, did open fire, but was immediately ordered to stop. Tsarnaev was then taken in to custody and brought to a hospital for medical treatment. He will stand trial for his crimes.
Even more recently we can find an exemplary example in how law enforcement handled the occupation of the Malheur Wildlife Refuge in 2016. Rather than “storm the castle” or light it on fire, law enforcement simply waited until their options improved. They were able to arrest all but one suspect. The one was killed by arresting officers after, reportedly, reaching for a firearm. That means 9 suspects will stand trial and the justice system will attempt to fulfill its purpose.
Police need to be trained in de-escalation techniques. They need to be trained in working to keep everyone alive–not just themselves. They need to be trained in alternative problem-resolution techniques to force. They need to be trained to be patient. Yes, this will likely result in an increased level of risk to officers. I recognize that. That’s the job I’m asking them to do. Training, support, equipment, and compensation should reflect that risk.
We need society to have trust in our law enforcement personnel. We need law enforcement personnel to behave in a manner that retains that trust.
When that trust breaks down violators on both sides will use it as an excuse to escalate their own actions. And more people will be denied the right to see their families again.
Heather missed picture day for her dance class due to our family’s bout with hand-foot-and-mouth disease.
Today was a dress rehearsal, so she got all dolled up again. So I set up my equipment to try and get at least one or two decent pictures of her in her costume. Our kitchen, unfortunately, is just not quite large enough for me to use my 50mm lens effectively, but I got some okay pictures:
Corinne wanted to be part of the excitement as well. She looks like an anime character.
Picture dump from coloring and finding Easter eggs:
I have a habit of making up little songs that I sing to Heather. They’re not impressive in any way, but she likes them (usually). The most often criticism I get from her is to “make them more rock-starry.” I don’t really know where she got the concept, but she then is happy if I give the song a more rock-and-roll style.
Because of her regular insistence on my songs being more “rock-starry,” on Saturday I told her I was going to put on a song for her that I thought she’d like. I told her it was a song I associate with Grandpa (her Grandpa, my Dad) playing on Saturday mornings for some reason.
Dickerson kids should now make a guess about the song, we’ll see if we developed a similar association.
I played “I’m gonna be (500 miles)” by The Proclaimers and she thinks it’s awesome. We listened to it a few times and she can sing along with some parts. During the chorus she got her stroller and would strut around in circles pushing it along.
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Now for something completely different.
One of the kids from Heather’s preschool class had a birthday party this week. It was Monday evening and Corinne was going to need to be going to sleep, so I took Heather to the party. It was at a party place in town that has a room with big inflatable play structures and a rock-climbing wall and some other rooms for eating and such. We arrived and I told Heather she should find the birthday girl and say, “Hello” and wish her happy birthday. But Heather didn’t want to leave my side.
She was a little overwhelmed by the noise of the fans on the inflatable things and by the number of adults milling about. So we walked around the room getting a feel for the place and she started to relax. I asked her if she recognized the kids. She said they were the kids from preschool (with that tone of voice that says, “obviously”). I asked her if she could tell me their names. So she started rattling off the names of the kids in her class. I interrupted her and asked if she could tell me who particular kids were, “Who’s this girl who came over and said ‘hi’?” But she didn’t know. We did this a few more times and she didn’t seem to know the names of any of the girls. Then a couple of boys ran by and she did know their names.
At school they do a game where they say a kid’s name and toss them a ball. When they do this they’re all wearing name tags. Heather has no problem with names during this game.
We think she’s reading the name tags (probably not completely, but recognizing enough letters to then pick the right name from her memorized list) during the game.
I think she must have the same issue that I have with recognizing faces. I can learn to recognize a face, but it seems to be harder for me than it is for other people. Especially if I run across someone outside of the usual context–it can be incredibly hard. Often times I will be able to recognize that I know the person, but have no idea how or why or who they are. Heather seems to be the same way. At the party she definitely recognized the kids, but couldn’t connect them with their name, but she knew all their names.
I find it really interesting. It took a long time for me to realize that I took a lot longer to learn names and faces of people. I don’t think it was until I was in college that I really figured it out. Which probably has something to do with growing up in a town where the entire grade was the same ~100 kids from kindergarten through graduation. I would have learned all the kids eventually and then they didn’t change much. Whereas in college there was little consistency.
Taking her to that party and watching her in a full-blown social situation where I don’t know anybody and can’t really help things along made me realize how much of my personality she has. Jess says she sees a lot of her own (Jess’) personality in Heather as well.
We know she does play with other kids in a very normal way, but we also, at times, see her play less with the other kids and more in-the-vicinity-of the other kids a lot too. And she will, not-uncommonly, just go off by herself to play.
At the party, when it was time to sit down and eat, she went in and carefully sat at the corner seat furthest from where the other kids were already sitting. The table then filled in around her. During the time they were all sitting at the table she only lightly interacted with any of the kids. I recognized that I was displaying the exact same behavior. I didn’t really interact with any of the other parents. I tried to stay to the outside of the room so that Heather would be more likely to interact with the other kids and less likely to just interact with me, but I suppose I wasn’t being a good example of pro-social behavior. At one point she wanted to tell me knock-knock jokes. I redirected her to tell them to the other kids at the table which she did just fine. She wasn’t unhappy at all–just not really interested in the other kids.
This makes me feel a little torn. I fully recognize the benefit of developing the ability to have smooth social interactions, but I also recognize that it probably doesn’t bother her (in the same way that it didn’t bother me at all that I wasn’t interacting with the other parents at the party).
In some ways its feeling like I’ve acquired all this understanding about the world and now have to decide would I have done anything different in my own life growing up that I should now encourage Heather to do.