The "SOME PEOPLE" Essays
What Makes Us Great? by Michael Zajakowski | Edited by Kimberly J. Soenen
(Lower Wacker Drive, below Michigan Avenue, Chicago. July, 2019. Photo by Michael Zajakowski.)
I made this photo on Lower Wacker Drive, below Michigan Avenue, in Chicago just before the Fourth of July in 2019, a time when patriotic fervor in the United States was in high gear.
Looking north on Michigan Avenue toward the DuSable Bridge, into what many consider the most beautiful part of the city, you are confronted by two looming sentinels: on the left, the gleaming Trump International Hotel and Tower, and next to it, the Wrigley Building, draped in an American flag, 100 feet tall by 50 feet wide.
Across the bridge, the Apple store, the brilliant architectural gem and a retail incarnation of a company with a trillion-dollar market cap greater than the GDP of most nations, including Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Sweden.
In the presence of such powerful symbols of wealth and financial success, it seems the only appropriate response is awe. Yet steps away, under this “Magnificent Mile,” countless homeless Americans, young and old, of every color and background, able-bodied and afflicted, struggle to survive.
Increasingly, families and individuals struggling to pay medical bills as a result of a serious illness or disability find themselves in a downward spiral into homelessness, beginning with a lost job that leads to eventual eviction.
More and more of our monthly family budget goes to out-of-pocket healthcare even though we have “good” health insurance, and the thought of a major illness or injury depleting our resources haunts me.
Why haven’t we had the will to put affordable, quality healthcare at the top of our political agenda?
Our raucous and divisive political climate is forcing us to decide what kind of a nation we want to be and question what makes us “great.”
At the moment, we seem to be distracted by shiny objects. As we debate what America can and should be, will we continue to regard opulence and excess as the measure of our success, or will we lower our gaze to meet the eyes of those less fortunate, who offer us a more profound opportunity to achieve greatness by addressing the needs of our most vulnerable?
ABOUT
Most recently, Michael Zajakowski was the director of photography at Chicago magazine. He is the highly-respected former photo and video editor at the Chicago Tribune where, for 20 years, he led exceptional news, arts and business coverage in addition to special projects and features. He is the cofounder of the Prism Photo Workshop, the resource for young photographers of diverse backgrounds whose goal it is to tell stories of underrepresented people and communities with dignity and authenticity. The 2025 Prism Photo Workshop will be held on Saturday, May 3rd at Columbia College in Chicago. Register and get all the details here.