Will the New Year bring a New Narrative and New Process? Let's HOPE...

v So -- Mr. Trump, tell us exactly what the problem is that the WALL is meant to solve?
Ø   Too many illegals crossing our borders leaving us unsafe.

v Does that mean the problem to be solved is our safety threatened by illegal immigrants coming across our southern borders?  How would you describe that threat?

Ø  With our borders so open, drug smugglers, terrorists, murderers and criminals cross into our country and terrorize us whenever they want.  Our cities and our people are being subjected to their criminal acts and terrorized by them.

v And, sir, just how much research and investigation has been done into this problem to determine its origin and extent, and to define it precisely?

[“Take the statements that started all of Trump's troubles; they came within the first few minutes of his campaign kick-off, after he rambled for a bit about the crowd and the Islamic State and Japan.]

Ø  "When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best," he said. "They're sending people that have lots of problems, and they're bringing those problems with us. They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists."

On CNN on a subsequent night, he offered a defense to anchor Don Lemon.
 Ø  "If you look at the statistics, of people coming ... I didn't say about Mexico, I say the illegal immigrants —if you look at the statistics on rape, on crime, on everything, coming in illegally to the country, they're mind-boggling," he told Lemon.

[Every part of that is incorrect. He did say his comments about Mexico — explicitly. And data show that new immigrants — including illegal immigrants — are less likely to commit crime, not more.]  
Here are some voices that have studied the problem:

"Foreign-born individuals exhibit remarkably low levels of involvement in crime across their life course." (Bianca Bersani, University of Massachusetts, 2014. Published in Justice Quarterly.)

"The crime rate among first-generation immigrants — those who came to this country from somewhere else — is significantly lower than the overall crime rate and that of the second generation," said Pew Research.

"Since undocumented immigrants are more than a quarter of the immigrant population, it's nearly impossible that the overall-immigrant crime rate could be so much lower if the undocumented-immigrant crime rate were significantly higher."  (Pew Research)

      "There’s essentially no correlation between immigrants and violent crime." (Jörg Spenkuch,       Northwestern University, 2014. Published by the university.) He did find a small correlation between immigration and property crime, but only a slight one.

"Immigrants are underrepresented in California prisons compared to their representation in the overall population. In fact, U.S.-born adult men are incarcerated at a rate over two-and-a-half times greater than that of foreign-born men." (Public Policy Institute of California, 2008.)

"Data from the census and a wide range of other empirical studies show that for every ethnic group without exception, incarceration rates among young men are lowest for immigrants, even those who are the least educated. This holds true especially for the Mexicans, Salvadorans and Guatemalans, who make up the bulk of the undocumented population." (Ruben Rumbaut, University of California, 2008. Published by the Police Foundation.) 

Ø  On CNN, Trump cited an article from Fusion. "Eighty percent of the women coming in ... " he says, trailing off. "You have to take a look at these stories. ... It's unbelievable, when you look at what's going on. All I'm doing is telling the truth."
 "Lemon correctly pointed out that the story was about immigrant women being raped. "Well," Trump replies, "someone's doing the raping, Don." In apparent disbelief, Trump adds, "How can you say such a thing?"

"And there you go. Trump completely misreads a media story, turns it into a mushy stat in his head, and uses that as an excuse to bash immigrants without cause. The stat is nowhere near accurate, but that doesn't matter. When he's presented with accurate data, he offers a weird rationale — and then criticizes his critic. Perfect.” (By Philip Bump, July 2, 2015, The WASHINGTON POST)

v So, Mr. Trump, considering the immensity of the problem as you see it, have you been able to come up with any studies or statistics in the last two years that bear out your interpretation and your descriptions of this problem?

Ø  Well, there is the Heritage Foundation that looked into the problem and came up with the following conclusions:

Ø  U.S. laws have glaring loopholes that encourage the illegal immigration of children and families and the use of asylum claims as the preferred method to enter.

Ø  Society-wide violence, jobs or reuniting with family are not grounds for asylum. Knowing this, many never show up for court. They simply live illegally in the U.S.

Ø  Congress must close the loopholes. That means rejecting the Flores settlement and instead allowing accompanied children to remain with their parents.

Unfortunately, the Heritage Foundation does not support its claims with statistics or factual material; most claims are estimates or speculation.  Likewise, a supposedly statistical analysis from various government and other sources included in a The Hill article on “The truth about crime, illegal immigrants and sanctuary cities” By Ron Martinelli, opinion contributor - 04/19/17 07:00 PM EDT -- Martinelli cites some studies and statistics but does not provide any links to their origins. 

In other words, it is very difficult to discover unbiased or scientific studies of the claims made by Donald Trump about illegal immigrants being criminals, rapists, and murderers.  Most statistics that are cited do not refer to anything more than generalized data that contain no verification of actual criminal behavior by illegal immigrants from Mexico or other Latin American countries.
We are therefore left with the following result: 

It is impossible to say with any certainty that the WALL proposed by Donald Trump is a solution to a problem of criminal activity among illegal immigrants crossing our southern borders. We have not been presented with any evidence of a wide-ranging problem involving a threat to our country’s cities and populace from a criminal element among such illegal entrants.

 Thus, we are left with a “problem” that is ill-defined, perhaps untrue or made-up, and with a solution that wastes government money to build something that solves nothing.  

This is a fundamental ineptitude of our current government:  Congress and the White House seem to have little know-how in terms of solving real problems because, apparently, they have little or no ability or interest in using the mechanisms and processes available to do so. 
For example, here are some so-called problems that led us in the wrong directions because they were ill-defined and researched, resulting in inadequate or inept solutions to fabricated problems simply because our leaders and office-holders were chasing and debating problems made-to-order for political gain rather than promoting the general welfare of the People: 

§  Election Fraud by voters?  No; the real problem has to do with elected leaders in states that pass restrictions on voters so the votes of certain opponents of those leaders are denied and skewed and uncounted
§  Tax Reform? Not really, but simply a way to reward wealthy sponsors and rich corporations so they can continue their robbery of tax revenues before they are overseen by Congress
§  Climate Change – denial of which places us all in danger while protecting those who add to the reality of environmental poisoning and disastrous climate change through their corporate greed
§  Healthcare coverage – the abject failure to guarantee access to adequate health care to everyone is leading us not only to sicker people but to economic hardship, inadequate personnel, and less coverage for those in need, as well as to a crisis in delivery of care to those who most require it
§  Gun Violence –because we persist in equating gun rights with the second amendment at the behest of NRA lobbying forces, we miss the obvious point that the second amendment is about gun owners' rights, not about gun rights.  Guns are products that should be regulated just as automobiles and drugs and other potentially lethal products are regulated in order to protect and maintain the superior right of every person to life, to liberty and to the pursuit of happiness.  Instead we have, as a nation, been willing to sacrifice the lives of thousands of innocent adults and children as an acceptable price-to-pay for the absolute protection of potentially lethal guns. 
§  Along that same line, about 40% of the people in a recent NBC poll expressed their feeling (or lack thereof) that separating children from asylum-seeking parents -- to discourage families attempting to cross our southern borders -- is worth the degradation, the psychological harm, the sickness and even the deaths of young children.  That is not a political problem; that is a morality problem!  
I submit to you that we must do something about this inadequate process, because, even with a democratic majority in the House, we shall be the victims of equally inadequate resolution of our real societal and governmental problems if we continue to ignore immoral and abusive actions by government leaders.

In other words, under Republican leadership and Trump ineptness and chaos, we seem more able to create problems for ourselves than to solve the real ones that we face every day, such as:

ü  Lack of universal comprehensive health-care coverage available to all our People
ü  Disasters caused by climate change and poisoning of land, sea and air by fossil fuel and other chemical wastes that will eventually destroy our planet 
ü  Inadequate preparation for a looming technological revolution that will change the economics of daily existence
ü  Attacks by foreign and domestic enemies on our elections, our institutions, our inventions, our infrastructure, our computer programs and our personal information 
ü   But even more heinous, we have a problem of immoral attitudes and behaviors tearing at the fiber of our government and of our society under the guise of "problem-solving"

 It would seem that our immigration problem(s) is not one of stopping illegal crossings.  Our real problem seems to consist of several inadequacies:   

• Inadequate provisions for allowing and supporting refugees who seek asylum; not enough border patrol agents trained to carry out humane dealings with all who seek to enter our nation 
• Inadequate use of humane means for intercepting, interviewing and returning illegal border- crossers to their homes where that is appropriate 
• Inadequate numbers of border crossing stations equipped to accommodate families 
• Ill-defined comprehensive immigration and naturalization policies and procedures 
• Poor and sometimes non-existent agreements and joint efforts with other countries that extend along our borders; along with non-membership in accords with many other nations, with the UN and our own allies. 
• Denial of our status as a welcoming nation; a nation of refugees; a culture built on diversity not on singularity; a humanitarian nation that believes in welcoming strangers and assisting those with special needs and challenges.

At the base of this inability to deal forthrightly and in orderly fashion with the real problem of the lack of comprehensive immigration reform policy is the lack of common ground upon which to stand and deliver; the lack of a carefully researched and carefully phrased definition of the problems that do exist.  Instead, we are led astray by the personalizing and politicizing of fabricated issues and problems that exist in the twisted minds of those who believe their only purpose is a battle for status and power between opposing political parties and ideologies.   

And so, at the end of 2018 and the beginning of 2019, I have offered just a narrow look back to see where we have been and an even smaller look forward to seeing where we need to progress. I believe we can find common ground, and I believe we can progress toward a future that will bring us closer to the ideal that was given to us 240+ years ago. I offer a small but necessary suggestion to those who would lead us forward; particularly to the new majority in the House of Representatives.

We must redefine the Mission of government.  We must know the common purposes by which we will progress on our Mission.  We must set Goals that seek the people’s welfare and not the welfare of political parties or of one wealthy cohort of our population over all the rest. We must, in other words: change the narrative that currently prevails.  It is destructive of democratic ideals.

At the same time, and this is KEY: we must change the process by which decisions, laws, regulations, and policies are being made.  Unless that process changes, the common ground and the changed narrative will have little meaning.  Words without appropriate means to convey them can be dastardly, deadening and destructive.  We must reform our process of legislating, of executing, of appropriating, of enabling, and of overseeing the use of our money, our institutions, the welfare of our People and our international relationships with others. 

So, I leave you on this New Year’s Day with a tried and true method for problem-solving that has demonstrated its ability to change prevailing narrative and process at the same time.  It is not the only proven method that exists – there are variations.  But, without a disciplined problem-solving process in place to convey a new narrative and to provide a shared, collaborative, and systematic approach, we will most likely find ourselves confined to legislative and executive outcomes that will not prepare us for the revolutionary changes and issues of this 21^st century. The goal of the process is not just to solve but to evolve, adjusting solutions continually as new challenges and circumstances emerge. 

This Six-Step Problem Solving Model appeared online and can be found in the free E-book titled: “Top 5 Problem Solving Tools” at www.free-management-ebooks.com.

1)     Define the Problem – this translates to “diagnosing a problem” – discovering its context, its background, its implications, and who it affects, and how urgent those affects are. Techniques used might be brainstorming, questionnaires, or interviews.  A problem’s precise definition is as important as its careful implementation.

2)     Determine the Root Cause(s) of the Problem – a good opportunity to collect and to analyze data and research results from various sources familiar with the underlying assumptions and circumstances; a good time to involve constituent input, but to minimize paid lobbying efforts.

3)     Develop Alternative Solutions – find and consider as many solutions as possible, no matter how outlandish they seem, then look at each in relation to root causes and symptoms of the problem; decide if some solutions can be merged; eliminate the options that prove to be less likely to deal with both the symptoms and the cause(s)

4)     Select a Solution (or set of solutions) – apply two key questions: which solution is most feasible? (timeframe; cost-effective; manageable risks; resource usage; benefit, etc.) and which solution is favored by those who will implement it and those who will use it or be affected by it?  Acceptance by implementers and users (consumers) is key to success. Government solutions based on the needs and challenges of our people must be the guiding star.

5)     Implement the Solution – an Implementation Plan must be formulated including actions required even before implementation; setting goals and milestones, identifying resources needed, actions and tools required, start date determined, etc. Implementation is the primary job of the Executive branch of government, but the legislature has an oversight function as well.  Collaboration should be built-in to the Plan. Effective problem-solving groups and leaders often take the time to designate feedback mechanisms to detect if the project is on-course or veering from its objectives during implementation – constituent advisory groups is one mechanism I have advocated that congressional representatives might use both for on-going feedback and monitoring.

6)     Evaluate the Outcome – monitoring and oversight include checking on: milestones being met; costs contained and spent appropriately; that goals and necessary work are completed.  Determine what can be done to improve the project or to strengthen the outcomes and use the 6-step process to resolve any newly discovered problems.    

There is much more involved in this process than can be enunciated by this simplified summary.  Point is:  Actions speak louder than words and without disciplined action, words can lose their meaning.  It is time for us to demand that the words of our fore-bearers be given new meaning by progressive processes that embody and embolden government of the People, by the People and for the People.  Happy New Year!