How do we get along for our long run?

Ferguson has seen more than its fair share of trouble. That is sad, because we all want to avoid trouble for ourselves. After all these years of trying, why is our community not better off? We can point fingers, but that will satisfy us just for a day or two, or make us eternally angry. The alternative for us is to look at the big picture and notice something is off that makes everything in Ferguson be off.

Did you know that District elections discriminate? You probably do. But you also know that according to the US Constitution we cannot have separate-but-equal for anything that does not pertain to the Federal level. So here we are, voting in districts, all showing up equally. But we all know we do not end up being equally represented. And that is hurting us in the long run.

Look at the image below carefully, because you need to understand the glaring difference between a system that picks a winner and a system that delivers actual representatives. How can a police officer become different in his or her attitude towards blacks you may ask when we vote in a different format? Just look at the minimum of representatives we elect 'democratically' today to guide our officers. Do you see how our system has too much room to wiggle, while the other system is a closer fit of people voting?

With just six council seats, Ferguson does not need to fear the extreme vote, because each seat represents about 15 percent of the voters. In Ferguson, we do not have any extreme voters to that amount.

In our current District system, you can vote your entire life and not be represented. It has happened to too many of us. In the other system of Fair Representation it is actually quite hard to not be represented by the person you voted for. Our system discriminates; we need the fair system that supports our long term future.

People in Ferguson have been killed. Everyone of us knows that freedom can never be based on killing a person; it is a desperate measure. We also know that good systems are not born during revolutions. We've been playing the wrong game long enough: We need getting our representatives right. That way, we also get law enforcement people that enforce the law for all people.

How do we achieve that? We either take City Hall and change it into the democracy promised in the US Constitution. Or we participate in the lousy system, but as a united front we win fair representation as promised in the US Constitution.

Join LocalParty.Org if you want to follow the latter option.