Humainologie creative dialogue tonight Wednesday October 6 on the End of Policing

"Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?" - Abraham Lincoln

"It always seems impossible until it’s done." - Nelson Mandela

"Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything." - George Bernard Shaw

Our creative dialogue topic for this evening, Wednesday October 6, is the End of Policing. Sounds impossible, right? Right up our alley!

Greg MacGillivray has provided an incredibly valuable resource for our dialogue. He sent it to you recently. I have copied and pasted a link below this email. The document arose from a workshop that Greg had organized with Calgary Police Services. Participants envisioned various scenarios for a future in which Calgary Police Services would have to re-invent themselves in order to achieve the best possible outcomes.

The four scenarios derive from how economic conditions and social conditions evolve between now and 2040. Economic Conditions: Will economic conditions be characterized by abundance and comfort or by scarcity and poverty? Social Conditions: Will society be more inclusive and connected or more divided and isolated?

If you can find time between now and our dialogue tonight, please read the Executive Summary, pages 2-3 of the document; and then please read pages 10-12, in which the four scenarios developed by the workshop participants are described in more detail.

Based on your reading of those pages, my one additional cue for your creativity is this: Please share at least one breakthrough idea for how we can move just one step toward that optimal scenario for the future of Calgary (“Riding the Waves of Abundance: A future with economic abundance and an inclusive society”).

Here are the questions I had provided in my original email about the dialogue tonight, which were based on the book The End of Policing by Alex Vitale:

1. In the Resolving Conflict Creatively Program (RCCP), begun in 1995 and used in New York City schools, interactive methods are used to teach children life skills in anger management, negotiation, mediation, cooperation, and intercultural understanding. ʺExtensive research shows that these programs consistently improve both school discipline and educational outcomes.” How might we use that information to transformative effect in Calgary, not just in schools but in every part of our society?

2. In Chapter 5 of his book, “Criminalizing Homelessness,” Vitale writes: “In 2013 the Utah Housing and Community Development Division reported that the cost of emergency room treatment and jail time averaged over $16,000 a year per homeless person, while the cost of providing a fully subsidized apartment was only $11,000.” How might we learn more about this, and use what we learn in a critical and creative approach to related issues in Calgary?

Here is the Zoom link for the dialogue tonight, as provided by Shinobu:

Topic: Humainologie creative dialogue Time: October 6, 2021 06:30 PM Mountain Time (US and Canada) Every week on Wed, until Oct 27, 2021, 8 occurrence(s) Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83728528644?pwd=VmxxbDRSdHoxbU1Jam5rYnlPbnB0UT09 Meeting ID: 837 2852 8644 Passcode: 12345

Please remember the following reasoning, which is the basis for all our dialogue events: Once we have a good idea of where we want to go (what sort of future we want for Calgary and for the global community), we just get started and we keep going andit is the journey itself that is the real point of what we are doing. We do not need to succeed; we just need to persist.

Arthur

You already have the document in the email Greg had sent to you recently, but just in case here is my copied and pasted link: https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0?ui=2&ik=80355f7d37&attid=0.1&permmsgid=msg-f:1712709660860204495&th=17c4c45cbaf3c5cf&view=att&disp=inline