These days Moab is a small city in southern Utah surrounded by fantastic desert scenery and recreation providing people like me with a periodic escape from the world’s troubles. Named for the Old Testament region just east of the Dead Sea in modern day Jordan, it’s where God’s prophet Moses struck his staff twice against a large boulder that broke open and produced water that saved the Hebrew people just before they entered the Promised Land. The metaphor fits. Modern day Moab’s water seems to flow from the red rock that comprises the place’s surreal desert surroundings.
The Old Testament tells us that the original Moab was as far as Moses got in his effort to lead God’s people to their promised destination. That’s right; his reward for keeping the fledgling tribe of Israel together across 40 years wandering in the wilderness — surviving all manner of trials and tribulations along the way — was to be denied entry by God into their ultimate destination. Why?
In a word, accountability. Moses, your see, took credit for the water that flowed from the rock that he struck with his staff. Rather than telling the Israeli people that the water was from God, he made them think that he and his older brother Aaron were the water’s mystic providers when he said in the “Book of Numbers,” “Must we bring you water out of this rock?” just before striking it. After all, who on Earth can deliver water from a stone?
It may have been the first written account of someone taking credit for his bosses’ work and not getting away with it. I make light of it, but the intended lesson in accountability is anything but funny.
Last week’s tragic police shooting in Columbus, Ohio – a place I long ago called home – left 16-year-old Ma’Khia Bryant, who was Black, dead at the hands of a white Columbus police officer who likely saved the life of another Black teen when he shot the knife wielding Bryant. The cascade of immediate and irresponsible social and traditional media commentary about this incident reminded me of God’s ancient lesson in accountability with his prophet Moses.
In its initial coverage of the incident, NBC News excluded police officer body cam footage clearly showing the knife in Bryant’s right hand, and what can only be described as her wind up to thrust it at the other female teen she was attacking. Their contextually incomplete coverage was nakedly intended to reinforce a narrative rather than report the whole truth — that in the wake of the Derek Chauvin conviction for the murder of George Floyd, another white police officer overreacted and killed an innocent person of color.
I don’t know if Lebron James was provoked by this misleading coverage, but the world’s greatest active basketball player nonetheless led the charge of unaccountable commentary when he tweeted to his 60 million followers a picture of the police officer who shot Bryant with the caption, “You’re next, #Accountability.” James shortly thereafter removed the tweet and walked back his original statement, blaming others for using his comments “for hate.”
The tragic irony is palpable. Regardless of his rationalization, James — an extraordinarily influential social media personality, as well as a great basketball player — failed to be personally accountable to understand the facts of a deadly encounter between a police officer and a minor in telling his followers it was time to hold another white police officer accountable for the unjustified killing of a Black person. And as for others using James’s tweet for hate? At best, and I choose to give Lebron the benefit of the doubt, the tweet was made from ignorance of the facts. And as the old saying goes, “Haters gonna hate.”
Locally, and on a far less tragic but still very concerning note when it comes to accountability, the slow-motion legal battle between the town of Carbondale and Michael Francisco, whose non-crime of allegedly grimacing and pointing his finger at a City Market gas station attendant last Christmas eve, (It’s [past] time to drop the charges, Aspen Daily News, March 24) had its most recent hearing this past Monday.
The outcome? Yet another continuance to May 24 with no resolution, but the hope of a conclusion involving restorative justice. The effect? While Francisco’s life remains in limbo for another month, the opportunity for a positive outcome remains.
I’ve always been, and still am, a big Lebron James fan even though he and I have nothing in common. The only thing Michael Francisco and I have in common is the town we both call home. I want Lebron to do the right thing, which at this point means owning up to his mistake completely, and it's Michael Francisco who provides the model. Responding to a reporter’s inquiry after Monday’s hearing at Carbondale Town Hall, Francisco, the victim in this whole charade, advocated for a restorative justice process so that, as he put it “everyone can heal.” Not just him. Now that’s accountability. Recognizing that an issue is bigger than just you. And it requires no hashtag.
No one, not God’s right hand man Moses, not Lebron James, nor the Town of Carbondale, is immune from doing the wrong thing. It's one of the things that makes us all human. But so is the ability to be accountable, and in so doing show others the way, which is what Michael Francisco did on Monday.
As for NBC News? All hope is lost. Just change the channel.