October 2018

In mid-September, Turkish and Russian delegates met in Sochi and emerged with an agreement forestalling what might have been the greatest humanitarian crisis of the Syrian war. Or, as the UN put it, the “humanitarian crisis of the century.” Which is saying something, considering the myriad humanitarian crises trailing in the wake of pretty much every party involved in this war. And there are many involved parties—they aren’t calling this a proxy war for nothing. Just look to the aforementioned agreement: Syria itself isn’t even represented. But I digress.

It’s 6 a.m. on Christmas morning in Memphis. The Robinson family awakes to the sound of banging on the front door. A large man wearing a neon vest and gloves asks “Truck or curb?” The Robinson family is being evicted. The man asks whether they would like their possessions to be placed in a truck, where they will be taken to a storage facility for $350 per month, or the sidewalk. Since The Robinsons know they don’t have enough to foot the $350 storage bill, they opt for the curb. “Excuse me,” the large man says, as he and his team walk through the door. They begin to take everything out of the house—couches, food, family pictures—it all has to go. Mrs. Robinson wakes up the kids and tells them to get dressed. In a matter of minutes all of the Robinson’s earthly possessions are strewn across a busy sidewalk in downtown Memphis, stuffed animals and all.

Vox Populi in Action

In the 1980s, with Reaganomics in full force, presidential candidate Jesse Jackson saw the need for a unified voice for the millions of disenfranchised Americans. As a result he initiated a political organization known as the Rainbow Coalition, a movement that transcended party politics and touted leftist policy initiatives to transform social programs, voting rights, and affirmative action. Jackson’s “big tent” coalition garnered support from an array of communities: African American, Jewish, LGBT, disabled veterans, farmers, and many more were able to unite under a common goal. The Coalition revived, if only for a moment, a sense that mass movement could change the political discourse on social and political issues from a platform that ran much deeper than the Republican-Democrat dichotomy. However, the momentum was short lived. Jackson was running as a Democrat, and was stiffly opposed by members of his own political establishment. Detroit Mayor Coleman Young said, “The major task of Black America today is to get rid of Ronald Reagan. We cannot afford to support a black candidate who cannot win” [1].