Once we are born, there are two things we all are going to experience no matter how hard we try to avoid them, no matter how much money or fame we have. One of those things is death. The Bible is very clear that all of us will experience a single permanent death, no one gets out alive. The second thing is problems.
I dedicated 34 years of my life to public safety, enforcing the laws that our legislators placed before me. That’s what cops do, and we trust that those laws are well thought out, studied and based upon sound data and evidence. Later in my career, I realized that this is not always the case, as some of our laws have little to do with sound evidence and are emotionally driven by feel-good politics. That’s why I hung up my badge to advocate for sound public policy as the Executive Director of the Law Enforcement Action Partnership.
In today’s world, technology has made it easy for everyone to share their ideas and opinions. I think most of us would agree that dialogue is a great thing as it gives us an opportunity to consider perspectives different from our own and possibly learn something. Historically, this deliberation process has been essential in ushering in progress and positive changes. However, being confronted with an idea different from our own often puts us in a vulnerable position. Challenges to our worldview is like a challenge to our identity and even considering a different perspective can be scary and make us feel uncomfortable. We may feel that our intuition is strong but still be without any definitive facts to make our case.