I have to salute Thomas Nast for his role in bringing down the Tweed empire. For pretty much every site I visited for information about Tweed, Thomas Nast and his cartoons were not far behind. They follow him everywhere, even to this day. History has sewn them together.
Again, that speaks to the influence and the power of journalism, even back then. Without the technology we have today, where we are able to spread word faster, and to a bigger audience. He was a solitary man going up against an entire system, and he took them down. Was it solely his doing? Of course not. Ultimately the people who went to the polls that year and voted Tweed and his goons out of office should receive some of that credit; but to say his cartoons didn't play a significant role in the downfall of the Tweed ring is simply ignorant, in my opinion.
That's something I feel we lack in today's world of journalism. With so much corruption in politics and business, who is going to stand up and speak out for us? Who is going to risk their jobs (even lives) to bring us the truth and help open the eyes of this country. With major corporations owning major news networks, it's hard to get that done, but at the same time, we all have a platform now. Thanks to social networking, blogs, youtube, etc., we all have a voice that can be heard now. Maybe we don't need a solitary man or woman to help bring about change. Maybe we can start a grassroots movement and bring even bigger change than Nast did with his cartoons.
Regardless, it just gives me hope that we don't always have to solve problems with money, or violent protests. Something as simple as a pen and paper can get the job done. If we can master a language, and target and audience, we can do more than power and money ever could. We can plant ideas in peoples' minds, we can bring about a movement. Hopefully my generation will take heed to this and use that kind of power for good. After reading up on the Thomas Nast/Tweed conflict, I feel more inspired to get something done.
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