Learn from the past, let go of it and move forward

So reads the fourth "ground rule" for anyone who participates
in a Celebrate the 8! conversation.

On its face, it seems like a reasonable tack; no point in dwelling
on the past. Unless of course, the past includes an unpaid debt.

If you scratch at the scab a little, you will find that the
leadership of the APS has a past that it wants to hide, and not
just to expedite the move into the future.

More than two years ago, there was a scandal in the APS Police
Department. The leadership of the APS sat on the evidence in
the scandal until statutes of limitation expired, and APS senior
administrators could no longer be prosecuted for felony criminal
misconduct. All the while chanting;

• learn from the past, let go of it and move forward,
• learn from the past, let go of it and move forward,
• learn from the past, let go of it and move forward,
• ...

This is good ol' boy accountability. Its real purpose is to allow
good ol' boys to avoid the consequences of their bad choices.
There is no good and ethical reason to turn one's back on past
grievances and complaints. There are only unethical reasons,
reasons like; avoiding the consequences of corruption and
incompetence.

The fact that this shows up as a "ground rule" for participation
in public meetings points to the fact that nothing in the APS
has really changed; good ol' boys are going to continue to slide
on the consequences for their misconduct.

Someone else first wrote;

"No debt is too old for an honest man to pay."

That old saw, was one of the aphorisms that we used to teach
students that their character counts.

And like APS' two different standards of conduct; one for
administrators and board members, and one for students,
speaks straight to the hypocrisy of the leadership of the APS.