Rahm Emanuel has many of us wondering what big good could come out of all this disease, economic disruption and racial unrest. The former Chicago mayor and President Obama’s chief of staff may not have been the first to say it, but he says it often enough that many attribute the quote to him: “Never let a serious crisis go to waste. It’s an opportunity to do things that you think you could not do before.” Emanuel wants a grand bargain that would have the federal government take over all Medicaid costs from states – so insurance coverage could be extended to mental health and reproductive health and to more people – allowing states to expand spending on infrastructure, early childhood education and public higher education. Gov. JB Pritzker, with an infrastructure program already in place, could kickstart recovery here by investing heavily in downtown Springfield. Businesses could recover by investing entrepreneurial energy like when they were startups. There are many possibilities. –Fletcher Farrar, editor and CEO
Cover illustration by Brandon Turley
This article appears in Reinventing police.
