This paper is a polished and mildly extended version of the Getis-Ord Lecture I gave at the WRSA conference in Tucson Arizona, February 2015. The force of that lecture was to critically evaluate the literature, and in doing so, suggest alternative directions in our research. In some cases, these suggestions could greatly widen the scope of discussions on a number of important social issues. In sticking close to that lecture, this paper contains only a few references in the text so that it will read as the lecture that was presented. Relevant background references are included in the bibliography.