As Time Goes By...

Well, it's Friday.  So, Featured Foto time.

A couple of weeks ago, I'm walking through Union Square.  It's easy to forget that Union Square is one of New York's most historic spots.  It's been the site of many famous speeches and was the hub of the American labor movement through some of its darkest times. 

So, walking along, I see this sign:

And my first thought was, "it can't be 25 years."  If asked quickly, I might have said 20, or maybe even 15. 

But, of course, it is 25.  Reagan.  Gorbachev.  Wojtyla.  And, this man.

Walesa.  A longshoreman who changed history. 

Standing there looking at that sign for a moment, it all came back.  The miracle of social change is still mysterious.  Last week, I saw Ivan Marovic at Pop!Tech, a young man who was part of the group that toppled Milosevic.  Earlier this week, I found myself musing about the possibilities of exponential cultural transformation. 

There is no predictive model that is adequate to the task of mapping the currents that lead to the kind of turbulence represented by that sign in Union Square.  The biggest mystery in the universe remains ourselves...individually, and collectively.

Tags: Solidarity Pop Tech Ivan Marovic

Update: TypePad seems a little squirrely this afternoon, so this post was delayed.

Comments

[Niti Bhan]

Thank you for the eulogy. I remember him too, he was a hero and role model in the gandhian way.