Public Safety
Marion County, like so many places in our country right now, struggles with issues like substance abuse and mental health. Domestic abuse takes a huge toll, mostly on women and families, but they are not the only costs - men suffer too; but also businesses, employers, and neighborhoods. All of these issues put strains on our public safety resources. And we know that mental health, substance abuse, and homelessness are complex issues that don’t have just one cause, or one solution. In addition to all that, we need to look beyond societal ills at the environment. Emergency response is always most critical in the face of natural disaster. With the threat of wildfire and those environmental impacts becoming more familiar, and increasingly urgent calls to prepare for a Cascadia subduction earthquake, we need to make sure our county, our communities, and our neighborhood are prepared. When the twin towers fell in New York City, I was two and a half blocks away from the plaza and I got home that day covered in ash and dirt. It was one of the most terrifying and inspiring days of my life. In the days and weeks that followed, we were concerned about the imposition of martial law on the city. As I tried to make sense of the world around me and find locate my friends, my mind was my first respite, and after that my home was my sanctuary, and my neighborhood and my friends were my city. My city was my state. The world had collapsed. Just as ours will here, in both literal and figurative ways. There is nothing like disaster to breed brotherhood.
Most basically, we need to ensure that everyone is effectively and affordably provided for in our public safety services. We need to plan with an eye to the future. And we need to address the problems of today with rehabilitation and not recidivism in mind.