Just as I was sitting here pondering whether or not I should post a hopeful diary about the national reaction to Eric Garner, Michael Brown, etc., I tuned into Now with Alex Wagneron MSNBC. One of her guests was Heather McGhee, President of Demos. The topic was the injustice of the recent grand jury decisions and deaths of black men at the hands of police. As their segment concluded, however, Ms. McGhee articulated the same hopeful thought I had been mulling over: look closely at the thousands of people who are out there protesting all over the country. Notice anything? And then I said to myself, "I hope all of those people are registered to vote."
Both McGhee and Alex made the same observation: the crowds who are protesting all over the country are black and white and brown and Asian. There are a growing number of people in this country who don't see racial injustice as a "black problem;" they view it as a problem for all Americans. Both women saw this as a relatively new occurrence that made them feel hopeful that real change might actually take place.
Wow! They must have read my mind! Yes, the protests are important, but perhaps the makeup of the crowds is even more important: black and white people standing arm-in-arm, side-by-side, willing to work for change. Occupy Wall Street folks are protesting with civil rights activists. Simultaneously, fast food workers and other minimum wage earners are actively protesting wage inequality. There is a growing awareness that we are all in this together.
Perhaps some tipping point has been reached. Perhaps a generation that has grown up with friends and colleagues of all races is just fed up with the status quo. Perhaps the long-awaited swing away from the conservative status quo towards a more populist and progressive future is finally beginning. Perhaps the not-so-subtle racist vitriol shown towards the first black president and his family finally hit the nerve it should have hit long ago because of recent attacks on Sasha and Malia. Whatever the reasons, there are a whole bunch of people who've finally just had enough.
And wouldn't this be a great time to remind all of those protesters to register and vote? Wouldn't that be a great way to channel some of this wonderful energy? How about signs that say: "I can't breathe...but I can vote." How about some athletes writing "Vote" on their warm-ups?
I'm waiting for the leaders of the peaceful protests to take the crowds on a detour to city hall and register people to vote en masse! Imagine: long lines of people registering to vote when they're fired up to do something, NOT right before an election when lots of people are cynical and tired of all of the campaign ads and robocalls. Thousands of people saying to politicians, "I'll remember this injustice the next time I vote."
In recent days, I have heard numerous people reference the 1960's civil rights movement when discussing the current situation and wonder aloud if the same type of change is happening now. Ah, The Sixties. Love them or too-young-to-remember-them, they were the beginning of a social revolution that led to more justice for black, brown, female and gay people. There was the realization that there was a thread of commonality that tied all of our concerns together. Could we be experiencing that same type of phenomenon here in 2014?
I am not naive enough to think that all will be well and we will soon be singing joyous versions of "Kumbaya." The hateful and violent reactions to Michael Brown, the demonstrators, the St. Louis Rams, etc., make it clear that there is still a substantial minority of people in this country who long for the good old days of the 17th century. And these same types of people resisted change in the 1960's, but change took place in spite of them. It can still happen in spite of them.
And, of course, I have a caveat. I was all fired up while I was protesting in the early 1970's, and I was so excited when the voting age was lowered so I could vote in the next election! In fact, I still have the button that says, "My First Vote: George McGovern." Okay, so that didn't go very well...But I kept at it, and lo and behold, sometimes we win!
I was only 13 the night that the Buffalo Springfield sang "For What It's Worth" on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. I remember it so clearly. As a nerdy Catholic school kid, the social change in the country was so pervasive that even I knew what they were singing about. My hope is that what is happening here, this week, is so pervasive and so significant that even 18-year-old kids take to heart, "Stop, children, what's that sound? Everybody look what's going down." And after you look at what's going down, vote!