Community organizers put country first

Time.com's Joe Klein: What a community organizer does

Chicago Tribune: GOP's strawman: 'Community organizer'

Dallas Morning News: Why do Republicans mock "community organizer" role?

Media with Conscience: Republicans Hit New Low

MSNBC: Obama answers 'community organizer' jabs

Huffington Post: Defending Community Organizing

Washington Post: About Those Community Organizing Years...

The Republicans have made it clear where their focus is this week with their convention slogan, "Country First."

With the abundance of flags, chants of "U.S.A., U.S.A." and tributes to those in the military, they have been laying it on thick, which is traditional at GOP conventions.

Sen. John McCain has often talked about the need for Americans to dedicate themselves to service, namely military, and he is on the money.

But a line of attack that was used consistently last night by former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, and later by Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, calls into question whether a community organizer puts their country first?

Palin focused on the issue, namely to rebut the Obama campaign for offering up his community organizing work opposite her experience as mayor.

But when you examine Giuliani's dismissive response - and the subsequent laughter by the Republicans in the XCel Energy Center - regarding the community organizer jabs, the Democrats could have an opening.

After praising Palin's speech, I said as much, and that they can expect the Obama-Biden camp to seize on that point.

This morning, I read an email from Obama campaign manager David Plouffe, who incorporated the community organizer argument into a fundraising appeal.

Republican operatives I talked to said the lines were brilliant and that community organizers don’t play to the GOP’s strength.

I disagree. And so do the many folks who have sent me angry emails. They include white Republicans, black Democrats, people from Small Town U.S.A. and Big City, America.

At a time when Americans are losing their homes to foreclosure; folks are trying to get by after layoffs; lack of healthcare; pressing environmental issues; it’s ludicrous to slam the little man and woman who isn’t asking the government for handouts, but is doing what they can to make their neighborhood and city better.

I think of my parents.

As a child growing up in the Clinton Park neighborhood in Houston, my parents were just regular folks trying to raise their five children (sounds like Gov. Sarah Palin). They were always present at our local elementary school (sounds like Gov. Sarah Palin) and were heavily involved in our church.

But our neighborhood was dying. Drugs was ravaging it. Older homeowners were dying and their children didn’t want to live there, so they began renting to people who really didn’t care. We saw abandoned homes, weeded lots, no sidewalks, a park falling into disrepair, and a senior citizen center shuttered.

So they joined several others neighbors and decided to form a civic club. Others called them crazy for trying to advance their ideas, but they didn’t give up.

They enlisted their children in passing out flyers and putting up signs, notifying folks of the monthly meetings. A few folks showed up, but they kept going.

And going. And going. And going.

After months, and then years, we began to see progress. Stepped up police patrols. Crack houses raided by the Houston police, DEA and FBI. Abandoned houses torn down. Weeded lots cut. More heavy trash pickup days. New streetlights. New sidewalks. New sewer pipes. A refurbished park.

Bottom line, these average, low to middle income people didn’t have political power. They focused on people power. They organized a community to take action.

So when Rudy Giuliani and Palin mocked community organizers, they didn’t just toss a barb at Sen. Barack Obama, they were also demeaning Reginald and Emelda Martin. They were degrading the women who fought for their rights. They dissed the labor activists. Immigrant worker activists like Cesar Chavez. They dismissed those in the Civil Rights Movement, folks from small town America who were sick and tired of being sick and tired. They thumbed their noses at the Nelson Mandelas of the world who wanted a better life for their children.

It would have been perfectly fine for Giuliani and Palin to say that Obama’s community organizing days didn’t amount to enough experience to be president.

But when you openly laugh and mock those hard-working Americans who are in the trenches every day, then you really don’t care about “Country First” or service.

Will this be a major deal or a ripple? Likely the latter. But the one thing I know about community organizers is that they know how to organize communities. And if the McCain-Palin ticket wants to win, they sure better not slap those folks they will need to organize voter registration drives and pool systems to get folks to the polls.

Community organizers are always told they can’t do something or are dismissed as meaningless.

Yet they often have the last laugh.

Rudy, Gov. Palin and Sen. McCain might want to remember that.

UPDATE: I just got this email. I wanted to share.

COMMUNITY ORGANIZING NETWORKS SPEAK OUT ABOUT “ACTUAL RESPONSIBILITIES”

(September 4, 2008) – Faith-based community organizing leaders are speaking out today about the “actual responsibilities” of community organizers and their tremendous impact every day on the lives of millions of Americans.

Alaska Governor Sarah Palin’s remark last night -- that her experience as “a small-town mayor is sort of like a community organizer, except that you have actual responsibilities” -- reflects the fact that many of our political leaders have no idea what community organizing is or how it impacts the lives working people in communities across America every day.

Community organizers are equipping tens of thousands of clergy and lay leaders in thousands of congregations across America to take effective action to improve the lives of millions of Americans. PICO, Gamaliel, DART, and Interfaith Worker Justice are four of the congregation-based community organizing networks dedicated to this work. Contact leaders from each to learn more:

“As a life-long Republican, the comments I heard last night about community organizing crossed the line. It is one thing to question someone’s experience, another to demean the work of millions of hard working Americans who take time to get involved in their communities. When people come together in my church hall to improve our community, they’re building the Kingdom of God in San Diego. We see the fruits of community organizing in safer streets, new parks, and new affordable housing. It’s the spirit of democracy for people to have a say and we need more of it,” said Bishop Roy Dixon, prelate of the Southern California 4th ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Church of God in Christ, member of the San Diego Organizing Project and former board chair of PICO National Network.
PICO is comprised of 53 faith-based organizations and 1,000 faith communities from 50 denominations working in 150 cities and town and 17 states.

"We can thank community organizing for the weekend, the 8 hour day, integrated swimming pools, public transportation, health care for children and safe neighborhoods. Community organizing is behind most of the family-oriented initiatives we benefit from every day. I am proud to work for change in my country, my state, and my city as a community organizer, following the great traditions of Dr. Martin Luther King," said Laura Barrett, National Policy Director of Gamaliel/Transportation Equity Network (TEN).
Gamaliel is a multifaith community organizing network in 60 metro regions in the US, as well as Great Britian and South Africa. 2,000 faith congregations, student groups and unions are involved in Gamaliel.

“Contrary to Palin’s disparaging remarks, organizers have major responsibilities for creating policy changes. Feeding the hungry and housing the homeless are clearly responsibilities of people of faith. We do that by providing food and shelter and more importantly, by organizing to address the causes of injustice and inequity which lead to hunger and homelessness,” said Kim Bobo, Executive Director of Interfaith Worker Justice and the co-author of “Organizing for Social Change.”

Interfaith Worker Justice includes 60 affiliates and 20 workers centers and organizes people of faith to improve wages, benefits, and working conditions for workers, especially low-wage workers.

“Politicians should thank community organizers, not insult them. As a longtime organizer, I’ve seen time and time again the we are the ones who make government work for the poor, the powerless and the marginalized. Politicians’ policies and promises would amount to nothing without grassroots activists to hold them accountable. We are leaders of faith and stewards of democracy. In a time when the face of faith in politics is often ugly, community organizing is a valuable example faith’s positive role in public life,” said Pastor Mark Diemer, senior pastor of Grace of God Lutheran Church in Columbus, Ohio and a DART community organizer.

DART has built and strengthened over twenty local affiliated organizations in six states and trained over 10,000 community leaders and 150 professional community organizers.

Comments

[Cynthia, TX]

Roland it looks like there is a little push back on Palin with her local media. Thought this post was interesting from someone in Alaska. Here is the link.

http://divasblueoasis.blogspot.com/2008/09/alaskan-loyaltyand-fear-of-retribution.html

Thursday, September 04, 2008
Alaskan loyalty...and fear of retribution: Why Palin stories didn't break before the nomination -- my Firedoglake post

[Angela]

Roland... thanks for your commentaries. I posted this in another post but found that it will be appropriate for this post as well.

ServiceNation Summit, Sept. 11-12 in New York city, will bring together 500 leaders of all ages and from every sector of American life—from universities and foundations, to business and politics—to celebrate the power and potential of citizen service, and lay out a bold policy blueprint for addressing America’s greatest social challenges through expanded opportunities for volunteer and national service.

The Summit will begin with a presidential candidates' forum the evening of September 11, where Senators McCain and Obama will speak in depth about their views on the role of citizenship and service in post-9/11 America. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg will welcome the attendees when the proceedings continue the following day, and the summit will conclude with a keynote address by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who earlier this year became the first governor to create a cabinet post dedicated to service and volunteering.

http://www.bethechangeinc.org/servicenation/about_us/contact_us

There is also a poll that you can take to ask the candidates a question.

http://www.bethechangeinc.org/servicenation/take_action/poll

I am a community organizer and I along with a few other mothers have started a group called African American Parent Advocacy Group which is a group to help parents advocate for their children's education. It's hard work, but it's rewarding...

[Carolyn]

The Republicans are putting out the same fear tactics as they did with anyone who protest the war. You were labelled not patriotic, today you are called sexist. And we and the media are called liberal. They withdraw a spokesperson because they claim Campbell Brown had done something wrong. She had only tried to get the answers from someone who did not know and did not know what to do. He was embarrassed and not seen again. If the media stops, the republicans win and they have no credibility. We must pray for them all.

[ezpz]

In case anyone missed it....

An emailer sent this to Politico:

"Mrs. Palin needs to be reminded that Jesus Christ was a community organizer and Pontius Pilate was a governor."

http://www.politico.com/blogs/jonathanmartin/0908/Democrat_reader_email_of_the_day_so_far.html

[BrwnSknGurl]

This needs to be out in the MSM! No offense to your blog, Roland, but where is the outrage nationally? This was so over the line, I can barely type about it I'm so enraged.

Also, I just saw the replay of Palin's speech where she mocked "the adversities" overcome by Obama and Biden versus "real adversity" of serving one's country in uniform. [See abcnews video of "The View" where Whoopi discusses this.]

It's really despicable and these terrible statements have barely made a ripple in the press today...

Again -- WHERE IS THE OUTRAGE???!!

[Avembe]

Please guyz read this ,it's short but it's definitely good news!!!!!!!!
http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/

but this one is not
http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/westmoreland-calls-obama-uppity-2008-09-04.html

[Avembe]

Sorry i forgot this one
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_oZVe3P1RU

[Avembe]

And THIS is just UNACCEPTABLE!!!!!!!!
Ladies and gentlemen We must impeach Mc CAIN/PALIN
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/09/04/politics/animal/main4414663.shtml?source=mostpop_story

[BrwnSknGurl]

I now see the sites you've posted, Roland. Thanks, fellow Chicagoan!

[MRA- NY]

The dissing of community organizers - for all the reasons already noted - is not only disrespectful, but stupid! As was pointed out, not only are they going to need such people to register voters and GOTV, but Barack Obama's army of millions is now fired up to do even more! and, thanks to Palin, the ranks are swelling steadily!

Beyond the remarks about community organizers though, I would like to see her speech taken apart line by line. Some have disputed some of the lies and deceptions that were thrown out (taxes, her bridge to nowhere stand, other items), much fewer have taken on her comment on habeus corpus (my take on this one: this person who is vying for a position that will require an oath to uphold the consitution, just dissed the constitution! no surprise really, to be expected from a third Bush term).

Not only is there more from this speech that needs to be addressed (just a week ago, local headlines in Alaska spoke for days about the child that was being taken off life support after being attacked by a pit bull - if nothing else, her 'joke' was insensitive to her own constituents), but I would love to see her speech taken apart line by line.

The Republicans have nothing to offer - on jobs, education, taxes, environment, Iraq, civil rights - NOTHING! So they resort to Bush's speech writers - was it Rove himself?

That speech made me ill - and I can see by analysis and comments across the net and MSM that I am not alone.

PLEASE - SOMEONE SHOW HOW EMPTY THIS PARTY IS, HOW EMPTY THAT SPEECH WAS AND HOW DANGEROUS THIS BIBLE-TOTING CREATIONIST, ANTI-CHOICE, POWER-ABUSING, BOOK-BANNING, EARMARK GATHERING, LYING PERSON WILL BE IF JUST A HEARTBEAT AWAY FROM THE PRESIDENCY!

[BrendaF]

Have you been to www.voteforchange.com today? If not, please do so. Get registered today. If you register one person a day between now and Oct. 4th, you will have registered 30 people.

We must help Senator Obama get elected to the White House!! Become your own community organizer for change.

BrendaF

[MDA]

Jesus was a community organizer. Pontius Pilate was a governor.

[Reecie]

Roland I need to first fact check you on one thing, the Obama campaign has never used his community organizer experience in comparison to Sarah Palin's experience as mayor. In fact in an interview, he talked about his executive experience running a campagin with 2,500 workers (compared to her 50) and a $36 million operating budget PER MONTH compared to her $12 million budget per year.

But anyway...I found the community organizer diss incredibly vile and unnecessary. I am a Black woman who had the opportunity to go to UCLA, because people before me fought for my rights to not be treated as a second class citizen. 45 years to the day of Dr. King's "I Have a Dream" speech, Barack Obama became the first Black nominee of a major party, so don't tell me that community organizers don't make a difference. Community organizers make this country a better place and have fought for the rights of every person in this country. It was incredibly smug, elitist, and arrogant of her to degrade the work of Obama has a community organizer. He did more good bring hope and inspiration and job training to out of work residents when all she did as mayor was saddle her small town in $20 million debt and fire the librarian!

And if they want to compare chronology, while Obama was being a community organizer in the South Side of Chicago, she was working as a sportscaster...does she believe that is more relevant experience and more life-changing experience than helping poor people get back to work?

I also just read that she transferred 5 times and it took her 6 years to graduate with a degree in journalism from the University of Idaho. Despite having a journalism degree she never wrote for the school newspaper, never did anything media related. Compare that to Obama going to Columbia and getting a Bachelors in International Studies and being the first Black President of the Harvard Law Review and consitutional law professor at the University of Chicago. He is far more accomplished than her in every single way imaginable. For people to compare this woman and her life of being an underachiever to Obama's excellence is beyond insulting.

And for her to laud her experience as a PTA/Hockey mom in obe breath and denigrate the experience of millions of community organizers around the country is hypocritical and disgusting.

[Reeta]

Governor Palin has stepped into the game so she should be ready to play. The mccain camp is hoping that by her being a woman that anything being said by her is OK and if she's attacked by the media or the Obama camp then it's sexism; however, when she stepped on that stage and started spouting her sarcastic, attempts to be comical rhetoric then she opened herself up to whatever comes. Hopefully, Hillary will step forward and have a few words as this might cause her not to get a position in the Obama cabinet.

This only made me up my contribution to the Obama campaign.

[frank]

Palin's attack on Community organizers does not need defending. I guess Obama would have more credibility if he went the same path as her via, Beauty Pageants and working for her husband, part-time fishing.

[frank]

Palin's attack on Community organizers does not need defending. I guess Obama would have more credibility if he went the same path as her via, Beauty Pageants and working for her husband, part-time fishing.

[frank]

Palin's attack on Community organizers does not need defending. I guess Obama would have more credibility if he went the same path as her via, Beauty Pageants and working for her husband, part-time fishing.

[Jody Gaddy]

Discussing this issue is a waste of time because you are dealing with brainless bunch of invalids and children called Republicans.

Notice two components of the work of the community organizers:

1) People

2) Communities

Given what you know from Ronald Regan, Senior Bush, current Bush, Guiliani, McCain, and Palin, why are you surprised that these brainless animals do not understand that PEOPLE and COMMUNITIES are the bedrock of a democratic arrangement and orderly societies?

When he was alive, Ronald Regan hated to use the words 'AIDES' and 'stem-cell'. After his miserable death, his wife suddenly wakes up and becomes an advocate for these things.

In McCain's 30 years in office, he voted against many issues, including civil rights, holiday for MLK, funding for teen pregnancy prevention, vets' medical care etc. He even supported Bush's handling of Katrina. Now that he wants to become the president, he switched sides and becomes compassionate.

Sarah Palin voted against funding for teen pregnancy prevention, against funding for kids with disability, etc. Now she is for these things.

You can go through the list of all Republicans. The RECORDS are there for you to write volumes of books on their retardation, wickedness, and hypocrisy.

It is as if these people are congenitally retarded and childish. When they are in power, they act mean-spirited and brainless; the problems of PEOPLE and COMMUNITIES are not their concern. When their children fall into the same trap or when they fall into the same needs or disease as the rest of the people in the communities, they quickly grow some nerves to make some noises.

[rikyrah]

Here's something I wish I had written:

Jesus was a community organizer and Pontius Pilate was a governor

Mr. Martin, you made me so proud watching you last night call them out.

OT- some Congressman from Georgia called Barack and Michelle UPPITY. I don't mean hinted around it, CALLED THEM UPPITY.

[BrwnSknGurl]

What is this mess about Clinton -- not to expect much from her. From NYTimes tonight:

"Advisers to Mrs. Clinton, who has been on vacation this week, said that she stands ready to help the Obama-Biden ticket, but they urged not to overestimate the effect she could have, noting that she had other commitments this fall, like campaigning and raising money for Senate candidates."

I knew Clinton was full of it...

[TG]

I know this may not be noteworthy but is it just me or does Mrs. Hockey Mom Sarah Palin seem a little detached from her new born? As a young woman with traditional values, when it comes to children, I found it very interesting that the kids have the child more in their arms than she does. I understand she has a job to do but she's also a mom with a newborn in close proximity to her, and when she's not on the stage speaking, she's not holding him, at least not that I've seen. Additionally in her picture bio you saw very few pictures with her son. Where am I going with this- small town American women have their kids in tow with them everywhere they go. It would have been great to see interacting with her newborn. I'm concerned about a potential Vice President's emotionally stability and ability to run the country when she seems so detached from her newborn. I'm in no way trying to suggest that women can't be President or Vice President-because I know we can and one day we will. But I think we have to be scrutinized in our ability to do the job just as a man does. Post partum depression is a potential issue for every woman and she just seems a little detached is all.

Also, what are her credentials? I know she was a news commentator, mayor of Wasilla and the Governor but where did she go to school, what college no one has mentioned any of that.

And lastly what do we know about the town of Wasilla. Are they all one big family or a diverse community? Just asking, I made some observations their also?

We need to make sure we know about this potential V.P. who came from no where. Does she have the must have 3 E's: Emotional stability, Experience and Education? The last two may be able to merge but the first one is definitely a "must" that's in a category all by itself.

[Michael7]

Roland,

As one who has worked in the past for the City of Cleveland, Ohio monitoring, evaluating and providing techinical assistance to those community based groups that the Republicans have been denigrating these past few days, I know from first hand experience the positive impact these organizations have on the communities they serve.

I also served as the VP of the board of a group whose mission was to bring and retain jobs in one of the poorest sections of the city. For me to hear the lies and distortions coming from the right about how community organizations are somehow not performing a noble and needed function in the nation, makes me wonder what planet these folks live on?

I can guarantee that there are inidviduals at the RNC convention who have benefited from the work of a community based organization in their city, whether they know it or not. If they are elderly and handicapped, it was community organizers who lobbied the government for that hadicapped parking space they now have. Or the sidewalk ramps that allow for easier access for wheelchairs. Or the traffic signals that emit beeping sounds so the deaf can cross the street at busy intersections. Or if any of their relatives are indigent and needed food, well, those food banks that provided the food they ate are community organizations.

Furthermore, Sen. Obama has a degree in International Studies from Columbia, a law degree from Harvard; practiced civil rights law AND taught constitutional law at the Univ. Of Chicago, BEFORE he ran for public office. His whole life has been about public service. He has represented more people in the state senate than Gov. Palin did as Mayor of her small town in Alaska. Sen. Obama has represented more people in his position as US Senator from Illinois than Gov. Palin has as Gov. of Alaska. She has a degree in journalism/communication from the Univ. of Idaho and was a sportscaster in Alaska, and she did this before she ran for Mayor. Now tell me how her educational background is equal to or greater than Sen. Obama's?

Sen. McCain received a free tax payer paid education from the Naval Academy, graduating 884 out of 889 in his class. Once again, who has the greater level of intelligence? Sen. McCain or Sen. Obama?

Senator Obama has run the most efficient, successful campaign in political history. His campaign is financially sound, is disciplined and free from scandal. He is still married to the same woman for over 16 years, with two beautiful children. Contrast his life with both Sen. McCain (war hero adulterer) and Gov. Palin (Grandmother to be from her 17 year old daughter who is having a child born out of wedlock) and whom would you say is the person who has the moral bearings to be a leader of the nation? Who is the one who knows how to fix the economy or keep us safe from foreign or domestic enemies? Whose judgement would have kept us out of Iraq in the first place, thereby negating a debate about the so-called surge?

Sen. Barack Obama, the next POTUS!

[will]

Hook line and sinker!! The “outrage “over the community organizer issue has put the experience issue front and center, right where the republicans want it.A special Thank You to the MSM for their usual cooperation. And how bout Obama's 3 a.m. SOS phone call? "Hillary, please get out there and help me stop that B" Clinton has no real interest in helping him, and why should she. If Obama loses she can run against McCain/Palin in 2012. Otherwise she will have to wait until 2016. Her luster will have faded by then, she can't risk that :) lol.

[will]

Btw Michael 7 David Axlerod has run the most successful (now starting to show cracks) presidential campaign in history. Obama is merely the figurehead. As for his community "organizing" ties with ACORN.

-Last week, Milwaukee's top election official announced plans to seek criminal investigations of 37 ACORN employees accused of offering gifts to sign up voters (including prepaid gas cards and restaurant cards) or falsifying driver's license numbers, Social Security numbers or other information on voter registration cards.

-Last month, a New Mexico TV station reported on the child rapists, drug offenders and forgery convicts on ACORN's payroll. In July, Pennsylvania investigators asked the public for help in locating a fugitive named Luis R. Torres-Serrano, who is accused "of submitting more than 100 fraudulent voter registration forms he collected on behalf of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now to county election officials." Also in July, a massive, nearly $1 million embezzlement scheme by top ACORN officials was exposed.

More about Acorn: http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110009189

No more surprising than the public discovering that the recipients of Obama's "community organizing" lived in Rezko shanties. Community organizer business associate with corrupt political fixer and slumlord. Agent of change, highly unlikely, chicago politics have taught him well.

[will]

And Roland, you work for CNN, please stop citing Huffy as a mainstream or even reputable outlet.