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Standing Your Corner

I'm a long-term David Simon fan ever since I read his book "Homicide", detailing a year-long embedding with Baltimore homicide detectives. It was clear-eyed about all of the strengths and weaknesses, good reflexes and prejudices of everyone that he met.  I enjoyed the television show that followed that he wrote for, and then of course "The Wire" on HBO and a number of his other shows---only limited by my access to streaming services. 

There was a histrionic moment in a later season of "Homicide" where he just let a character vent; a homicide detective who was part-owner of a bar frequented by cops watched a particularly violent drug criminal, responsible for many unsolved homicides, come into his bar with his associates, violating the detective's territory.

The detective came around the bar holding a billy club in his hand and loudly discussed his first year as a patrol officer walking a beat. His supervising officer told him that he had a corner and it was his responsibility. He was not to yield that corner no matter what to any drug dealers who wanted to use that spot. His SO drilled in him that the people who lived around that corner relied on him to own that corner and he would be shamed in their eyes if he backed away because of threats by the dealers. The soliloquy ended with the drug dealer cracking a weak joke and leaving. (He went on to kill more people; it was a place and a moment.)

In my own very small way as department chair a couple of decades ago I felt very strongly that way when a dean was proposing to decimate a program that members of my department had spent a year with his encouragement devising. I knew that if I kept silent I would never be able to face the people I was responsible for, so I didn't. 

It is a heavy responsibility, feeling that you must be vulnerable on behalf of people that look to you. It is also a strength, a role to play, a chance to be the hero in whatever context that may be.

Now is a time when I look to Democratic party leaders to stand up for the rule of law; to oppose mass firings without due process; mass deportations of good citizens in all but name, to defend programs that assist the poor and needy; to loudly proclaim that we wish to do right in the world with like-minded countries and not sink to being a gangster regime seeking spoils from victims.

I don't see Jeffries or Schumer standing their corner. So far AOC, Buttigieg, and Chris Murphy seem to be it. 

What is your corner? Who depends on you to stand for it?

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