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November 6, 2008
Forty Years in Chicago
Barack Obama’s victory on Tuesday night was exciting for people all over the world, from young Indonesians celebrating at his former school to African Americans recognizing that the dream of equal opportunity has been achieved. For a guy who grew up in Chicago in the 60s, the vignette of nearly one million Americans of all ages and races partying in Grant Park was simply surreal.
Frankly speaking, Chicago was a profoundly segregated city at that point in time. Dr. Martin Luther King had led marches in neighborhoods in the city and near-by suburbs for fair housing. Jobs in construction and related trades were generally restricted to whites. Black participation in politics was through the Democratic machine, with Representative Dawson the most visible distributor of patronage.
In March, 1968, on the morning after Dr. King was assassinated in Memphis, riots broke out in several American cities, including Chicago. My school was located near the Cabrini Green public housing project. Police cars were parked along LaSalle Street as a barricade between the posh Gold Coast and the projects. Mayor Richard Daley, father of the present mayor, issued his famous edict to the police, “Shoot to kill.” We were ordered to return home from school in mid-morning, with the acrid smoke filling our nostrils, the flames shooting up in the distance, the ever-present police and fire sirens in our ears.
Fast forward about six months to August, 1968 as the Democrats gathered in Chicago for the nominating convention. Young people felt disenfranchised by the party as their candidate, Eugene McCarthy, had fallen short in the primaries. Robert Kennedy, the heir to his brother’s mantle, had been shot in June. The anti-war movement focused on Chicago as a perfect backdrop for open social protest. The Democratic Party closed ranks around the incumbent, very middle-aged Vice President Humphrey. I have already blogged about my experience in running through tear gas in Lincoln Park during football practice. My friend, James Hoge, now editor of Foreign Affairs, but at the time, the young editor of the Chicago Sun Times, was mistaken for a protester and thrown through the plate glass window at the Conrad Hilton Hotel by two enthusiastic law enforcement officers. One especially poignant moment at the Convention was the very brave Senator from Connecticut, Abe Ribicoff, denouncing the Gestapo tactics of the police department, while Major Daley and his henchmen shouted insults in off-color language.
What I observed on television on Tuesday was an opening of a next chapter for America, beyond the historic constraints of age and race. Can this man, now a symbol of hope for change, now deliver on the promise? Much will depend on keeping the enthusiasm of those who have been outside of the political process for so long. Perhaps the social activism stimulated by the mybarackobama.com web site can play an important role in the decisions to be taken in the coming years.
The campaign’s very effective use of social media as a catalyst for fundraising, voter registration and peer communication must be applied to the process of governance. The weekly Saturday morning radio address by the President now seems so quaint. So does the reliance on the Sunday morning shows such as Face the Nation. To sell a Federal commitment to renewable energy will require a grassroots movement, not simply a bill moving through Congress. Let’s not put the genie back into the bottle; let’s unleash the vox populi.
Posted by Edelman at November 6, 2008 12:30 PM |
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Comments
Hmmm. It took a young black Senator without an MBA to show all the marketing gurus how integration(no pun intended)really can work.
Posted by: Harvey Cohen at November 7, 2008 5:24 AM
Imagine what a paradigm shift it would be, were governance itself to begin to be molded by social media. It would infuse Lincoln's phrase "by the people" with new meaning.
Posted by: Jim Markowich at November 7, 2008 3:27 PM
Looks like an attempt is being made in this direction already: http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/11/10/obama.wired/index.html
Posted by: Jim Markowich at November 10, 2008 3:33 PM