BLM: How to remedy "lack of care or compassion"? Free medical and dental clinics staffed by volunteers

New Portland, OR police chief Chuck Lovell points out on CBS News the "lack of care or compassion'' by the officers involved in killing George Floyd.

"When I watched the video of what happened to Mr. Floyd ... I remember the big takeaway I had ... it wasn't the tactics, it wasn't the number of officers who were there ... it was really the lack of care and compassion. The thought that this is an idea that could exist ... it almost felt like you're not important. To me, the fight is not with each other. The fight for all of us is against that idea that people, institutions, agencies ... can harbor that feeling and it has bad outcomes for people."

Lovell is right-on naming the root of racism and so many other -isms; it all comes down to harboring a lack of care or compassion in one's heart. 

How to change hearts? How to remedy harboring "lack of care or compassion" in people's hearts? 

Many spiritual teachings present tools for doing just that; it's sometimes called "The Golden Rule"--treat others as you would like to be treated. And sometimes we need a road map, a guidebook, an instruction manual for how to get from here to there.

History presents many examples to guide us, both negative and positive. U.S. history seems rife with negative examples of what happens when we harbor lack of care and compassion in our hearts (slavery, police brutality, wars of invasion and aggression, settler colonialism, strip mining, clear cutting old growth forests, massacring indigenous people, polluting industries, discrimination in all its forms, and on and on).

However, Portland history also presents examples of people uniting together with hearts brimming with care and compassion. 

One such example is the Free Medical and Dental Clinics founded and run by the Black Panthers and staffed by volunteer doctors and dentists from OHSU. 

(You can read all about this inspiring time in Lucas Burke and Judson Jeffries' book The Portland Black Panthers: Empowering Albina and Remaking a City.) 

Although Black Panther free medical and dental clinics were eventually destroyed by a series of decisions by Portland city officials and urban planners (whose hearts apparently harbored lack of care and compassion), now is the perfect time to start fresh. Here's one way.

OHSU, I'm talking to you. You can encourage dentists and doctors to once again volunteer to treat folks for free. In addition to studying the Black Panthers' Free Medical and Dental Clinics as a model of care and compassion, you can also emulate the volunteer-run Haight Ashbury Free Clinic. 

Founded in 1967, the Haight Ashbury Free Clinic's mission is "provide compassionate care regardless of anyone's ability to pay." It was the Haight Ashbury Free Clinic's volunteers who coined the now famous phrase, "Health care is a right, not a privilege." 

In conclusion, there are many ways (beyond a major restructuring of how police behave) we can nurture each other with hearts harboring care and compassion. One way is for volunteer doctors and dentists from OHSU to ASAP staff free medical and dental clinics in locations accessible for lots of Black folks and everyone. Follow the successful models of the former Portland Black Panthers', and current Haight-Ashbury, Free Clinics. Quickly establishing volunteer-staffed free medical and dental clinics is one of many ways to follow Portland's new police chief Chuck Lovell's implied advice to harbor care and compassion in our hearts. 

George Floyd and History's inspiring lessons / Lecciones de la historia

(El español sigue el inglés)

Bread and Roses

As we go marching marching
in the beauty of the day . . .

Blacks suffering extreme racist abuse, women treated like property, immigrants blamed for everything--yet we united 30,000 strong, demanded better wages, and though they tried to kill us, we won! 

The New York Sun reported: 

Never before has a strike of such magnitude succeeded in uniting in one unflinching, unyielding, determined and united army so large and diverse a number of human beings.

Reporter Mary Heaton Vorse explained why The Lawrence Strike of 1912 made such an impact:

It was the spirit of the workers that seemed dangerous. They were confident, gay, released, and they sang. They were always marching and singing. The gray tired crowds ebbing and flowing perpetually into the mills had waked and opened their mouths to sing, the different nationalities all speaking one language when they sang together.

Give us Bread and give us Roses

 The lesson here? More singing! Chants are good. Singing is better. Write songs. Sing songs.

The Velvet Revolution

The power of the powerless, writes Vaclav Havel, is to live in truth. When enough people live in truth, a society built on lies crumbles of its own accord. Faced with about 500,000 peaceful people in the streets of Prague protesting police violence (sound familiar?) in November 1989, the Soviet Government resigned. From night to day Prague went from authoritarian dictators to electing a playwright former political prisoner as President. Freedom and creativity flourished.

George Floyd memorial marches today

History teaches us--stay focused and peaceful. Stay united. Be specific in our demands. Give specific action steps to politicians that they can enact immediately. In a thoughtful hour-long press conference, New York Governor Cuomo spells out specific demands and articulates action steps--a primer for seizing this moment for making massive positive reform. 

And sing!

As we go marching marching . . .