Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Death Required for Public Policy Change

It often takes the death of a person to initiate action to change a policy or create a new law. Unfortunately that is part of the human condition.  We seem to think that if nothing negative has happened there is no need to make a change.  We are reactive not proactive.

Recently the issue of the Confederate Flag being flown over a state capitol came back into public debate.  The discussion was initiated due to nine people being murdered by someone who featured the Confederate flag in a photograph.

Why do we wait until someone dies before taking action?  Sometimes as in the case of gun control, there are not enough deaths to inspire us to action.  Not even murders of children in schools over the past 3 years was enough motivation to change policy in regards to gun control.

We can only ask those who stand in the way of change why must a death happen before they change their mind?  The irony of ironies would be if someone in their family happens to die because of their refusal to take action on an issue.

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