In January, I participated in a Washington Coalition for Police Accountability (WCPA) news conference on police accountability bills for the 2026 session. Throughout the entire experience, one question kept revolving in my mind: Why? Why are these things still so obviously needed–not only in police accountability, but in numerous areas–yet they are not happening, are changing far too slowly, or are even being pushed backward?
I think any reasonable human being can perceive the ridiculous things the current U.S. presidential administration has been doing, including–but not limited to–rolling back and/or stopping most, if not all, police accountability databases. And let’s be clear: I’m not talking about why there is obvious corruption. I’m not referencing why there are numerous power grabs, made-up wars, and the dismantling of pro-equity and racial equity modalities. I’m not even asking the question of why there is dismantling of Environmental Protection and Natural Disaster Programs and systems, or the why of the undermining of true and equitable democracy.
I believe the embedded question is this: Why, as a species, are we still struggling with these things? Why, as a country–after all the things we have said are important to us, after all the advances we’ve made–is there still any real part of our population that thinks the direction this country is going is OK?
If every human being is worthy of love, honor, trust, dignity and respect, then the human beings who postulate awareness of and belief in those values must be outraged at our current political and economic directions–and absolutely fired up and motivated to marshal their agency, capacity, collective awareness and energies to emphatically rise up and halt what is happening. I ask us to contemplate: Why is that not happening to the degree necessary?
Now, I’m not asking us to get so lost in contemplation of these things that we move further into our own inaction. I am asking us to really wrestle with the why (and what) of our human condition makes some so inherently vulnerable as to fall for these obvious ploys to selfishness and greed–to the point that we are willing to sacrifice the welfare of those we say we love, including our children and our children’s children’s children.
I invite enough serious contemplation in trying to understand some of these “why’s” so that we do not also fall prey. Because the last time I looked, a current AP survey showed that at least 4 out of 10 Americans currently support this administration and the direction of this country. Yet these are also human beings–and that makes what they are caught up in potentially something we can all get caught up in if we cease to maintain awareness and groundedness in our why, and a serious contemplation of some of these other why’s.
I wholeheartedly invite chewing on some of this–and more.
Remember: “True Integrity seeks out Accountability and Invites Transparency.” KR–2019.