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What a difference it makes when we "Hear each other out."
These are benefits you deserve...if you are willing to
"hear each other out."
HEAR EACH OTHER OUT
By Uriah J. Fields
Hear each other out is an idom and expression that calls for a person to hear all of what someone has to say - to listen to someone until he or she is finished. The question is, "Why don't we hear each other out? It maybe because we don't want our own views to be challenged or because we believe that they have something to say that may be more convincing or believable than what we are advocating or embracing..Whatver the rationale for not listening to each other must cease to be practiced if there is to be consensus and peace in our personal lives and in sociery.
The refusal to "hear each other out" accounts, to a large degreee, for the turmoil involving police killings of 37-year old Alton Sterling of Baton Rouge, Louisiana on July 5, 2016, 32-year old Philando Castile of Falon Heights, (St. Paul suburb) Minnesota, on July 6, and a sniper killimg on July 7 of 5 police officers and wounding 7 other police officers and two civilians in Dallas, Texas, by Micah Xavier Johnson, a Marine veteran who served in Afghanistan, and two days later the arrest of 120 persons, including Black Lives Matter leader DeRay Mckesson who were protesting the killing of black men by police officers.
I want to cite two incidents where "hear each other out" or the lack thereof that I experienced which impacted me in a way that made me a strong practitoiner and advocator of "hear each other out." This is particularly important for the black community and white police officers in resolving the distrust many black people have of white police officers and white police officers' unnecessary killing and brutalizing unarmed black people. ... (continued)
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I was fortunate to be at universities for much of my education and career. I often listened to the complaints of students from other countries and often let them tell me the whole story before responding. When we cut people off, we don't allow them to tell us, "the rest of the story" (Paul Harvey).
I just read of a Stanford study of traffic stops. It is a massive study that is not complete, but they have good data from North Carolina. The conclusion there is, that while people of color are stopped more often and have their cars searched more often, the percentage of contraband found is less. Those running this study hope to use the data to convince police chiefs change the culture of police departments so that this unfair activity is no longer practice.
Until we can somehow reduce the adrenaline running through the veins of officers in pursuit of suspects, I believe they will continue to behave in a flight/fight primitive behavior based on fear conquered by aggression. Maybe there is a simple pill that they can take while pursuing calm them down.
Ron