I am starting my life from scratch at 40, and have no professional writing experience.. that's okay, because I have no experience in anything else, either 😂. But when I was younger, I wrote quite a bit. I'm not very fresh on my grammar anymore, and very rusty in every aspect of writing.
My friend gave me an opportunity to interview him about the kentucky derby and turn the info into an article, so I took it. However, it was only a couple of days ago, and the derby is already tomorrow, so I nervously tried to put it together quickly. This is literally the first time I've tried to write anything in like 20 years.
I spent 2 days and about 20 hours, on what I considered to be a beautifully written article. Went to add the title, and poof. It was all gone. Accidentally hit the 'back' button. Held back tears, cussed quite a bit, buried myself in pillows, and had to make the decision to just say screw it, or start it all over again. So, I spent this morning trying to rush this article out to Medium. The article isn't anywhere close to what it was, but I knew if I didn't post something, I'd never get started. (I've been talking about starting a blog for months) Here's the link to the article that I had to turn back into an interview (with permission) because I had no time to reconstruct it, yet again, before Derby day, tomorrow. Any constructive criticism you could offer would be super. I know it's rushed, and not very personable.. I had to cut out a lot, due to sheer lack of time.. but I'll accept the obvious, and would really appreciate any input. Don't hold back. I just want to get better. I think I can, with some direction. Thanks guys. https://link.medium.com/bNzRR3hKTfb

Coders of America, you live in a time of deep civil unrest. Your nation's loss of trust between police and citizen is escalating violently. The social contract has been broken. There needs to be a new social contract, and it needs to start somewhere, with a draft. What better way to draft a contract than to have all its parties submit their contributions? So I come today to you with a suggestion: That what America's police and people need is a survey. A soul-searching upon the role of the police. The following describes a website designed to take the pulse of America regarding its ideal police force. You can help make this happen. We need three to five people working on this for a week and we can get it done. Perhaps, using voter registration and dual identification, it can be legit enough to be taken seriously. Not spammed. Still with me? Ok, let's get to the good stuff:

Ask the police: What would you ideally imagine your job as a policeman to be about? What did you hope this job could be when you entered the force? What's missing to make it what you had hoped? Best day on the job? What are the most dangerous parts of your job? People, situations, ...? If you're met with a junkie brandishing a knife, what would your response be in an ideal world? Why do you think the police force has become so deeply associated with racism? Which problems does the black community you police face most? What would be your favorite role in helping them, if you were paid to? (add/edit in some appropriate smart questions -I'm sure you can find some good people to pose the right questions)

Ask the people: What would be your ideal version of a policeman? Which problems do you face when dealing with the police? When should it be appropriate to use force in policing? How should the police react to a violent person? How should the police react to a crazed person? Are there any other groups of people the police might need a special reaction to? Have you called the police? For which reasons? Do you have any positive recollections of the police? Can you describe them? (see above)

Make a simple website. Left hand, in large, bold graphic text: Ask the police Right: Ask the people. underneath these bold-font words, smaller text: Left side column: Have you ever thought police work could be... better? For police, for communities? Tell us how. Let's rewrite what it means to be a cop. Together. Link: Get started Right side column: link bar to "About", "Results so far", "Who we are", "Donate to *Insert constructive NGO/cause here*"

The middle panel provides live-updating access to the questionnaire. First question: Are you or have you ever been a cop? Yes accesses the police survey, No accesses the civilians (even the word is used by them, such a military term). When you click your answer, the screen shows you the statistic of the previous answers, aggregated. A summary of the answers is provided under "Results so far" (see above: Link bar), with some nice live-updating charts. (Don't forget: Edward Tufte strongly discourages the use of pie charts. But they are catchy)

Side bar: About: This survey is an attempt to soul-search America for a new definition of the police force. A job description agreed upon by all and upheld by the unions, a clear and concise and fair set of rules for all to abide by. Fair funding for fair workload. Along the way, and fundamentally, we want to discover what the police of America need to do their jobs effectively and safely. What citizens imagine when they think of the hero police officer. If we succeed, we will produce a unique document to lay the foundation of a new social contract between the nation and those it employs to protect it. A new code of conduct and job description, rewritten by the whole of society. This can be used as a basis of negotiations between the unions, the president, and civil representatives elected from among for well-respected community leaders, scholars and healthcare workers.

Clearly I've gone insane. Nonetheless, I honestly believe this is the kind of deep dredge the nation needs to slough off the sludge of this rotten, broken contract that's no good for anyone. And make something new from their collective will and imagination. If you've read this far, you may have guessed: I'm asking you guys to make the website. I suggest policesurvey.com for the domain, which isn't exactly a steal at $3,999 at time of writing. Could name it something else though. We could also start a kickstarter. I also can't code a website like I just described, but I bet a smart person or three would knock it out in a few days. Seems like there could be a few around here. Let's do this? At this point, it certainly can't do any fucking harm, right?