There are over 8 billion of us and we have never been so powerful
Originally published on Medium in February 2024. This essay documents my thinking at the time.
I can’t believe anyone denies climate change. I’ve seen the climate change in my own short life. Winter in New York is not what it used to be when I was a kid. The first time this reality hit home was Christmas 2015. The temperature climbed to nearly 60°. Rockaway Beach was full of surfers — on Christmas Day!
So during a recent chat with my editor (and now dear friend) Stephanie, we decided to meet for a walk in Brooklyn Botanic Garden on “the next unseasonably warm day,” which was sure to come. And it did — within just a couple weeks.
Although we rendezvoused as planned, we had trouble finding each other. A large group of Hasidic Jews had gathered at the adjacent Brooklyn Museum in protest. Lots of police were patrolling the area. Members of the ACLU had come to witness the event and ensure no one’s civil rights were violated. Of course there were journalists and camera crews to document it all. An NYPD drone buzzed overhead. Stephanie and I hadn’t anticipated meeting amid such chaos. I kept my head down as I messaged her, navigating the commotion to an empty spot where I’d be visible.
As I waited for Stephanie, I took a good look at the crowd and couldn’t believe my eyes. This most conservative, most devout group of Jewish men had gathered not to condemn the Palestinians or even Hamas. But instead to protest on their behalf.
They held signs declaring “Israel is state organized terror” and “the state of Israel does not represent authentic Jewry.” Some shouted, “Israel is breaking Jewish law” and “We stand with the Palestinians.”
Initially, I was confused. But then I thought: Of course! Of course this most religious denomination opposes the murder of 28,000 Palestinian civilians, most of them women and children. Of course they recognize that Israel has strayed from her core Jewish values. And God bless them, they’re not afraid to say so.
One night at work, back in 2012, I was talking to a customer about the upcoming presidential election. I’d been an Obama supporter from the start. But just the previous night, I watched a debate where Mitt Romney made some excellent points. He swayed my views and now I was no longer sure whom to vote for. My customer asked, “Which candidate do you think will be better for this club? Which candidate will put more money in your garter?”
“Well,” I said, “Romney, I guess.”
“Then that’s who you have to vote for!” My customer replied without hesitation. He explained that when he was earning his MBA at the NYU Stern School of Business, professors advised students to always vote with their wallets.
I threw up in my mouth a little bit.
Even as a stripper, I understood that I was more than an economic being. And when I cast my vote for my nation’s highest office, I wasn’t voting simply in my own self-interest. I was voting for the greater good. I was voting according to the American values of liberty and justice for all.
Isn’t that how we’re supposed to approach voting? How could any American professor profess otherwise?
As a lifelong New Yorker who waitressed her way through Columbia, I cringe every time I hear someone from another part of the US rail against the “coastal elites.” Isn’t America supposed to value upward mobility? That’s what I was taught.
Unfortunately, my MBA customer from 2012 illustrates the selfish and greedy mindset now associated with the word “elite.” It’s the “elites” destroying the environment by flying around in private jets, cruising the oceans in mega-yachts. The “elites” are scooping up all the single-family starter homes and turning young couples into renters unable to build generational wealth. “Elites” are the people in Congress who declare war (or don’t even bother to declare war!) and then profit when the stock values of arms manufacturers skyrocket.
Too often, the elites don’t care about the greater good.
So it’s up to the rest of us to care. And we’d be wise to emulate the Hasidim protesting in Brooklyn on that unseasonably warm winter day. We’d be wise to remind our own leaders, our own communities, our own families, and especially ourselves when we have strayed from our own core values.
There are over 8 billion people alive on Earth right now. Yet only a small number are running the show. About 5 billion of us carry smartphones in our pockets. We have never been so connected. We have never been so informed. We have never been so powerful.
