Who Changes the World

A recently published survey of students at the University of Michigan in the 1960s found that only two-to-three percent were active politically. To those of us who were in that slice of the student body, it felt much bigger at the time.

What started out as small protests grew into large, raucous demonstrations that shut down traffic and brought out police in riot gear. We assumed we were changing the world. To the extent that we did, maybe it started because we changed the hearts and minds of the 97 to 98 percent of students who did not choose to participate in the movement.

Although we didn't know it, well beyond the campuses we were also affecting a broad shift in public opinion to oppose the war in Vietnam and support the civil rights of African Americans.

At the time, the book "A Prophetic Minority" by journalist Jack Newfield chronicled the events in real time. He also made a profound observation about socially conscious journalists: "The point is not to confuse objectivity with truth."

In 2020, large crowds have once again filled the streets of our cities, calling for social justice and an end to police brutality and institutionalized racism. No doubt when the history of this era is written, it will have been another small minority who have led the way.

What starts out as a trickle can eventually swell into a mighty river that sweeps the old world away before our eyes. What's difficult to perceive in the moment is whether we are still in the trickle phase or the river phase -- or, has the river already crested and is now subsiding.

In that context, the federal suppression of the rebellions in Portland and Seattle and the sympathy protests in Oakland overnight must seem like war reports from distant provinces not under central government control.

They may represent a new phase in the movements to challenge federal authority.

So often in the past, what happens on the left coast has swept across the country west to east.

Overnight rebellions in Louisville, Austin, and Aurora, CO, suggest that that trend has already begun. The trickle may be broadening.

***

From the collective to the personal, I certainly picked a hell of a time to try and write my life story. Rather than living out a peaceful epilogue, retired from the bustle of everyday responsibilities, I'm caught up like everybody else in an unprecedented disruption of our routines.

We didn't even have time to develop new routines before Covid-19 hit and suspended our efforts in a time that now seems long gone.

As I reread the words of my memoir written before the pandemic took over, they seem almost childishly naive. Who is that guy who took freedom of movement for granted so casually?

My former life reads more like a novel now. And on the verge of the biggest story of my time, I stepped aside.

***

The point of all this is that none of us can really know yet what is going on here. The virus has proved far more resilient and dangerous than we'd hoped and that certain leaders assumed it would be.

Outbreaks flare up like fireworks shows, first here, then there, eventually pretty much everywhere.

As the numbers of the dead pile up in refrigerated trucks, our health-care workers are getting overwhelmed in key parts of the country. They are at great risk of infection, yet they work long hours day after day.

When people are exhausted, mistakes will be made. Is it even safe to go to the doctor's office anymore?

At the national level, we have a leader who is panicking that he will lose his re-election bid. His poll numbers are in the gutter, including in my original home state, Michigan, which may swing the election. Trump's behind by double digits there.

A sense of gloom has settled over the land, lifted only by the silent cheers of cardboard cutouts swaying in the wind at baseball parks where no actual human attendees risk to venture.

Don't you understand, what I'm trying to say?
And can't you feel the fears I'm feeling today?
If the button is pushed, there's no running away,
There'll be no one to save with the world in a grave,
Take a look around you, boy, it's bound to scare you, boy,
And you tell me over and over and over again my friend,
Ah, you don't believe we're on the eve of destruction.

-- Barry McGuire

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