ICYMI: Sally Kohn's op-ed on our 40th
Sweeping Change is Coming
Trying to change the world can be like banging your head against a wall, for decades, persistently, achingly — until suddenly, without warning, the wall starts to give way. As it has during key moments in our nation’s past —from the American Revolution through the Civil Rights era — that wall is yet again starting to give way. People power is having an impact. And leading the push are organizations like Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year of making Iowa better for all Iowans.
If you, too, have been banging your head against the wall wondering why we still have factory-scale industrial farming despite all the evidence it destroys our environment and our health, or bemoaning the fact that most of us are working harder and harder today for less and less money, or wishing our democracy were controlled by we the people not the corporate lobbyists — then you may be too dizzy and tired to notice the signs of sweeping change about to engulf us.
To begin with, people’s movements are once again starting to win real attention and impact. Perhaps the most significant example is Black Lives Matter, which has finally thrust conversations about racial bias and police violence into the forefront of American politics and society. And from the prosecution of six Baltimore police officers in the death of Freddie Gray to the quick apology and accountability of Charleston police in the shooting death of Walter Scott, the movement is having a powerful impact. And more and more white people are thinking about and being held to account for their own biases, from the neighborhoods they choose to live all the way up to the actors they cast in Hollywood mega-films.
The issues championed by people’s movements are increasingly supported by ordinary Americans — from social media to the voting booths and beyond. Populist people-driven positions like a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants and criminal justice reform are supported by a strong majority of Americans across the nation, including in Iowa. And politicians on both sides of the aisle are now regularly at least giving lip-service to economic inequality, a populist conversation driven by people’s organizations like Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement. When what people are talking about in Washington and Wall Street is the same as hardworking Americans are talking about in the washrooms at work, you know change is afoot.
And the people are talking. From Dubuque to Des Moines, just like from Denver to Dallas to Detroit, Americans of all ages and races and backgrounds are clamoring for an economy that puts the people and the planet before profits — and a government that reflects the will of the people. Gone is the “me-decade” of the 1980s and the blind embrace of Ronald Reagan’s trickle-down rhetoric. Everyday Americans are talking about inequality and environmental calamity — and talking about what they can do, and what we can all do, to make a change. And from small business entrepreneurs to students developing the next generation of technology, we’re innovating for a better future every day. Grassroots people-led organizations like Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement are leading that positive change in communities across Iowa and nationwide.
On Friday and Saturday, I’ll be in Des Moines to help Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement celebrate its 40th year helping the people of this great state push for justice and fairness. It is a pivotal time for this organization and all of us who want a better America. Change is in the wind. If you listen closely, you can hear it rustling in the fields of hay and soybeans. The walls of opposition are crumbling. Change is coming. Be a part of it.