Paul Meyer,
Chicago, IL.
I am a bigot toward bigots. My so-called best friend in third grade gives me, a Jew, a Nazi ring saying, “my father wants you to have this.” My fiancé when I’m 33 hurls slurs toward hispanics. Others throughout my life condemn my race or other peoples’ races. I just disown these racists, until last year, with the horrific killing of a 17-year-old unarmed black high school student by a racist Chicago cop. It moved me, at age 69, to start marching for the first time in my life. I feel that maybe my activism, although I was only one of 500 marchers, helped quash the reelection of the Illinois Prosecutor who was part of the coverup for the young man’s murder. And I feel good about that. But not satisfied. So I brought the young man’s story and my stories to the stage (at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwwNMBFf0jM), beseeching my fellow North Side Chicagoans “to march with our fellow citizens from Chicago’s South Side.” I have no data on the impact of my performance but conservative folks I know have weighed in favorably on my message. Perhaps if more of us could elevate our activism to “actionism,” if we could expand our race card in creative ways to non-activist audiences, we may at least open some otherwise closed minds.
