Issue 9: Political Landscapes
A couple weeks ago, I went phone banking for the first time. We gathered together in an office and called South Asian Americans living in the Chicago area, asking them to vote in the primaries.
I must say, at first it was really intimidating, calling strangers and telling them to vote. I mean I’m a journalist, I call strangers all the time, but I’ve never called people to ask them to do something. It seemed like everyone around me was having meaningful conversations with the people they called, and people were just ignoring my calls.
I mostly left voicemails, and who knows if they made any impact. I did talk to one person who said he planned on voting because he wanted to make his voice heard. Who knows, I might try phone banking again.
Whether you vote, write, protest, whatever, make your voice heard.
Here are the three stories of the week:
- Walking a Cabbage in Kashmir — to Protest the Absurdity of War by Parul Abrol — Pushed to the brink by the insanity of life in a land on military lockdown, one mysterious resident embarks on a decidedly bizarre piece of performance art.
- A Black Woman Walks Into a Gun Show by Kashana Cauley — The gun show loophole allows shoppers to buy guns from private dealers without a background check. I stared down a sea of Confederate flags to find out what that’s like.
- Mr. Rubio’s Neighborhood by Suki Kim — Lost and found in the land that made Marco.
Send me awesome stories/multimedia work you see! Have a great week.
-rc
