Heads wrapped in vivid orange bandanas moved in unison as voices filled the air in an impressive resemblance of synapses, each message calling upon Northwestern students to do one thing: start caring.
Last Friday, Sincerely, America (SA) – a new student-formed political organization – held a rally at the Rock, dubbed A Tea Party to Occupy the Rock (TPOTR), in order to foster and encourage honest and accommodating political conversation amongst individuals from any hue of the political spectrum.
Playing off the factionalized movements of the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street, TPOTR rests comfortably in the middle.
“We’re the 98 percent, we’re not extreme, we’re just the normal person and we want our voices heard,” Alec Schulman, Medill sophomore and member of SA, said.
The event was an hour long and consisted of small group speeches, musical performances by Communication senior Kara Ali Goldsmith and Bienen and Weinberg sophomore Maris O’Tierney, painting the rock, mimicking the Occupy Wall Street’s human microphone, and culminated with the group singing the national anthem at the Arch. As volunteers passed out American flags, fliers and orange bandanas to curious bystanders, one by one, impassioned students took the stage on a wooden table and voiced what was important to them.
“We need to reach out to people, we need to tell people what we’re passionate about and we need to start working now,” said William Feinberg, a Weinberg senior and one of the other founders of SA, initiating the rally with a resonating hoorah. “So if you guys want to work with me, if you want to work with somebody else, fuck it – I don’t care. But work. Put your ass down, sit down and start writing, start thinking, but most of all start doing.”
Following Feinberg, several other attendees talked of issues ranging from climate change to the importance of registering to vote. While many of the 40 attendees were affiliated with SA, there were a number of students who showed up to the rally just to show their support.
“I’ve been craving Northwestern coming together for awhile and also I just love rallies and activism and projecting your voice, so I wanted to come and support,” said Weinberg sophomore Alexandra Glancy.
Weinberg and Communication junior Steven Monacelli, who is the party leader of the left in the Northwestern Political Union, similarly lent his support to the movement and acted as one of the guest speakers at the beginning of the event.
Urging students to take action and become more engaged with local politics through blogging, lobbying and voting, Monacelli stressed the importance of rallying events such as TOPTR because “Northwestern does have a reputation of being a politically apathetic campus – we don’t have the best reputation for collective action. Students need to be active, involved and asking questions because our generation is going to have to deal with a lot of issues and we need to be concerned with more than just getting jobs after we graduate.”
Four students, one cause
It was in their living room, surrounded by walls lined with novels, country flags and a Chinese banner overseeing the space in typical big brother fashion, that Alessio Manti, Nicholas Drayson, William Feinberg and Andrew Walker began orchestrating a new organization that would aim to re-inspire the political landscape of Northwestern: Sincerely, America.
The name gets at two ideas Manti stressed, “One that we’re sending a message, Sincerely, America. And then the second one is that we, in all sincerity, try to embody everything this country is.”
The genesis of TPOTR and, ultimately, SA was a spill-over effect from the increasing momentum of the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street movements. For the four seniors, they wanted to create a medium for people who didn’t occupy either extreme to express themselves.
“We have a basic similarity with them in that we share the same frustration towards the status quo emerging in our country,” Walker explained before adding, “We just have a different message than them but with the same core sentiment of frustration.”
It was this feeling of frustration and the need to express it that encouraged the quartet to bring living room talk to fruition – the group has already garnered 20 or so core members. While there is no permanently assigned roles as of yet, the organization will soon have an established hierarchy of specialties and responsibilities amongst members.
“To create change you must have a hierarchy and I think its hierarchy and accountability that sets the stage of long term success for the group,” Manti said.
Furthermore, though the group is to remain partisan-free, there is decidedly a diverse range of members leaning far right and far left. According to the founders, conflict has been limited and instead has led to constructive dialogue, as evident in the collective effort of the Manifesto, a list of principles and policies the organization adheres to. That being said, one issue that concerns Manti is the risk of irreconcilable differences following an increase in the number of members and consequently political beliefs.
“For something like this to work, it’s predicated on healthy and open communication,” Manti said. “If we have healthy conversation, no matter how great the political difference, we will still be able to reach some kind of constructive movement.”
After all, as Manti points out, this is the very heart of the issue that is plaguing American politics. “If we can’t figure it out in a 20 person meeting," he said, "we sure as hell will not be figuring it out in a three hundred million person country.”
Significance
Although honest and open political discourse is a vital element of SA, the defining difference between this organization and other political groups such as the Political Union is, according to Walker, action.
“Discourse and discussion are obviously necessary, but we’re going to actually starting with creating and pushing for policies,” Walker said. “We aim to do beyond just talking about things and increasing awareness.”
Much of the organization’s policies will stem from their manifesto, which is split into three guiding principles of respect, prosperity and security. The reason for focusing on principles as opposed to specific policies was deliberate, according to Drayson, as it is more applicable at a local level and thus easier to incorporate for potential satellite chapters in the future.
“Part of why we’re releasing a manifesto is that we want to establish a series of precedents for the moderation with which we approach problems,” Drayson explained.
According to Manti, within the next week and a half a policy team will be established and along with it their first set of policies within the guidelines of the principles.
This initial list of policies will be thoroughly researched, with pros and cons weighed and further narrowed down based on feasibility, whether this is done at a national, state or local level, and how to go about achieving these policies.
The last point in particular will distinguish and define SA’s normative character and core. The inherent method of lobbying and increasing voter registration aside, drawing that positive connection between the community’s happiness and politics is a goal Manti is set on accomplishing.
One way of establishing this connection is what Manti calls “Flash Mobs of Good Deeds.” What this incorporates is a number of students engaging in acts that benefit the community in small ways – from planting trees to picking up litter. Though similar in nature to activities done by the Happiness Club, SA has explicitly political goals.
“Part of having a healthy country is having a happy country,” Manti said. “The line between politics and society and economy is all very gray and we just want to create a positive, cooperative environment for people to remind them what the best part about America is, remind themselves what the best part of each other is and our community.”
Looking to the future
Although SA has debuted at TPOTR and emerged in political society as a voice for the silent majority, the organization has yet to fully sink its roots in campus soil.
“We want [Sincerely, America] to be a very organic thing and we try to engage people through our policy documents and goals,” Manti commented.
The group’s first goal is to appeal to have the American flag above the arch. According to Manti, there are two reasons for this goal, the first being that it is a feasible and tangible goal. The second lies in its message of optimism and unity.
Additionally, as a follow-up to TPOTR, SA will be hosting another event at the Rock. Dubbed Intencity, there will be a conglomeration of tents in the quad next to the Rock to raise awareness about the group. Here the SA members will camp out starting Wednesday at 12 a.m. until Thursday 10 p.m. Events during the two days will include community service flash mobs, silent raves and tents with different activities.
While the group has only planned two supplementary activities thus far,members of SA think it’s a start in the right direction.
“We are tired of being told we need to be extreme to participate,” Manti asserted. “It’s a message that transcends Sincerely, America and it’s a message that is desperately needed and missing and that’s where we come in – we’re filling in the void.”