Example A: How does the knowledge of international anti-terrorism translate to law enforcement on the curbs of a beleaguered neighborhood? We know crime and terror are related, but what kind of tools or training apply from the international to the local? What discourse helps?
Example B: Public schools know that they�re on the front lines for preparing a work force. When a teacher faces thirty students, half or more that don�t know how to read, and tries to teach Shakespeare or mathematics, how does international competition for jobs come in?
I don�t mean the teacher should talk about offshore labor; I mean, when these kids fail, they�re in a bad position to capture a prosperous adulthood in a healthy community.
Or put it another way: How can the long view be inserted into the particulars?
It seems to me, that for first responders, this disconnect from the international to the local feels like a two-tier system. The locals have the drudge end, working with not enough tools. And I read this in some blogs or accounts:
1. sometimes the venting of accumulated frustrations,2. sometimes a report of how a policy isn�t working (immigration, for instance)
3. sometimes an attempt at self-education in political science or international issues,
4. most often national/international programs that dribble down according to one priority or another, change every four or eight years, become paper-wasters.
So, instead of despairing over the general, I thought: study something. Figure it out. Try to connect them. I picked gangs, because by and large, they are a significant inner-city employer, a dangerous feature of the schools and neighborhoods.
And I am right back where I started. Gangs are international, but they are also relentlessly local. So I have to think about it some more. I have to do more research.
Image: An Art Print, "Frustration" by Brooke Sajer, at the Minerva Union. Ms. Sajer, this is gorgeous.
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