What is a Community Organizer?
September 4th, 2008 by Angela Glover Blackwell
This week, we’ve heard a lot of mocking of community organizers. Former N
ew York Gov. George Pataki even took time to ask, “What in God’s name is a community organizer?”
Well, governor, I’ll tell you.
Community organizers are the ones who fill in the cracks left behind by government and the private sector. They are the ones who helped regular people change their block, their neighborhood, their city, even their country. They are the ones who are there to stop absent landlords, rally for new parks or hold crooked politicians accountable. They are the ones who are needed most by those most in need.
Without community organizers, we wouldn’t have had the civil rights movement. Without community organizers, we wouldn’t have even the most basic labor protections. Without community organizers, parents wouldn’t have the power to make sure their kids’ school was up to snuff.
There are many kinds of experience we need in our political leaders. To dismiss the hard, vital work of community organizers is an insult to everyone who has ever carried a picket sign, spoken out for justice or rallied for a better, more just world.
September 4th, 2008 at 8:37 pm
Very well said!
I have only just returned from a visit to a small Fair Trade Certified coffee cooperative in Peru.While I was there, I heard the incredible story of the two year fight the community waged to replace their only bridge–a vital connection to the outside world–after a flood washed it away. Led by community organizers, the people of Santa Teresa did what the government wouldn’t do…raised the funds, hired the engineers, and slept on the bridge to keep officials from tearing it down. The only reason these small coffee farmers can get their coffee to market is that they organized and fought for what the government should have provided to them. I wish this story was about something that could only happen far away, but as we all know, it happens every day in communities all across our country.
September 5th, 2008 at 12:35 pm
And it’s interesting that some of these politicians and ex-politicians who (rhetorically, at least) place a high premium on religious values would be so dismissive of a vocation that has such deep roots in faith communities.
September 5th, 2008 at 1:24 pm
My best impression of the late, great Don LaFontaine:
In a wwwwworld, where Samuel Adams is just a beer. Where the Boston Tea Party is just another party you weren’t invited to. Where one movement decided to throw their own COs under the bus (Pat Robertson? Anti-abortion movements?) in order to mock the role of MLK to Cesar Chavez?
September 5th, 2008 at 4:37 pm
What I find so strange about the entire controversy is that EVERY political and policy campaign is, at heart, built around community organizers. And it’s not that hard to figure out what they do: they organize the community by knocking on doors, talking with folks over coffee and setting up neighborhood gatherings in the local church or school. Whatever issue they are organizing around, that is at heart what the organizing is about.
What, exactly, is mockable about this?
September 5th, 2008 at 7:58 pm
Referring to her own background as the chief executive (glorified and agrandized RNC speak for mayor) of Wasilla, Alaska, Shara Palin said: “I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a ‘community organizer,’ except that you have actual responsibilities.”
What Mrs. Palin failed to realize is that community organizers have a great deal of responsiblities to the community in which they work. One of those responsibilities is to be a catalyst for change- change that the community’s in which they work demand!
I guess beign a community organizer is like being a small-town mayor, except that you feel accountable to the community, except that a community organizers feels accountable to the people, family, and communities they serve because they care- not just becaue they need a vote, !!!
September 5th, 2008 at 8:02 pm
Referring to her own background as the chief executive (glorified and aggrandized RNC speak for mayor) of Wasilla, Alaska, Sarah Palin said: “I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a ‘community organizer,’ except that you have actual responsibilities.”
What Mrs. Palin failed to realize is that community organizers have a great deal of “actual responsibilities.” One of those responsibilities is to be a catalyst for change- change that the community’s in which they work are demanding!
I guess being a community organizer is like being a small-town mayor, except that community organizers feel accountable to the people, family, and communities they serve because they care- not just because they need a vote, !!!
In my excitement, I failed to edit my previous post. My apologies.
September 5th, 2008 at 8:45 pm
On Wednesday night, didn’t get home until really late, after a Planning Commission meeting I attended with 20 or 30 community members, to make sure a huge project doesn’t damage several neighborhoods and destroy part of a public park. There was something ironic about walking into the house and learning that the Republicans had been dissing community organizers while we (and our unpaid, hardworking Planning Commissioners) were slogging through a long evening. Without community organizing, our city would be a whole lot harder to live in, and political candidates might find it hard to get elected, too.
September 5th, 2008 at 9:10 pm
Listening to Governor Sarah Palin and Mr. Rudy Guliani at the Republican Convention deride Barack Obama’s background as a “community organizer” as less than valued work, seemed both smug and ignorant of this important and skilled profession. They demean the thousands of brave and trusted community organizers who serve, often for very meager wages, to ensure that citizens at our grassroots have a voice and role in decisions and issues that affect their lives, their communities, and our country.
Whether they are working to revitalize distressed neighborhoods, reduce crime and violence, clean-up environmental hazards, reclaim vacant property, prevent predatory lending practices, support rural cooperatives to aid farm families, ensure coordination of disaster assistance, engage youth in positive community activities, or conduct voter registration campaigns to reconnect citizens to our political process and more, community organizers are at the heart of our American democracy.
The legacy of community organizing is a vital one in America from Jane Addams and others in the Settlement House movement who organized citizens to press elected officials to address squalid urban conditions to Progressive Era organizers who campaigned for eliminating harsh child labor and for fair labor practices. Brave organizers struggled to gain women’s right to vote and run for political office. Civil Rights in America didn’t just happen; many community organizers risked more than just political insults and civil ignorance to gain true political and social parity for people of all races in America. Today, community organizers working in our distressed neighborhoods bring together diverse interest around common agendas to rebuild houses, businesses, and jobs to improve the quality of life, especially for the neediest among us. That is community organizing.
Meaningful change doesn’t just happen, and it certainly doesn’t just come from our elected leaders. Change comes from a concerned and empowered citizenry that makes itself heard and holds its leaders accountable. As I surprisingly heard one politician state recently, “It’s not about me…it’s about you…you are the change.”
Perhaps had Mr. Guiliani looked more ably, he would have recognized the community organizers working behind the scenes to build stronger and safer neighborhoods as cornerstones for a more secure homeland, as well as to help communities respond to many disasters. Maybe if Governor Palin had vetted her speech more, she could have underscored that the rights of and opportunities for our disabled children and citizens have long been a focal point of community organizers and parent activists who took it upon themselves to organize and learn how to organize to effectively gain access to resources and social inclusion, as well as to build strong national and local organizations to sustain this work. Instead, in their ignorance, they smugly disparaged the importance of those working behind the scenes to effect the real changes that citizens at the grassroots get tired and frustrated of waiting for their politicians to deliver.
Community organizing is part and parcel of the unique American democratic ability to help citizens to organize and respond to problems and issues in their communities and society. As an educator of community organizers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Social Work and as chair of the Association for Community Organization and Social Administration that represents community organization educators and practitioners in America and internationally, one thing I have learned about community organizers is that through their experience and skills, over time, they often become outstanding leaders. That is because of the very skills it takes to be an effective community organizer. Among these skills are the abilities to:
• listen to and involve citizenry on issues affecting them;
• bridge differences to develop common visions and action plans;
• mobilize resources – most importantly, people – to work on common agendas;
• promote citizen participation and social inclusion using democratic processes;
• build and lead organizations to sustain community initiatives at local, state, and national levels;
• teach others to lead and organize by sharing knowledge and skills to build community capacity for citizens to help themselves;
• be accountable to the community and its citizenry so as to earn their trust and show mutual respect.
Now that’s a pretty impressive resume. Community Organizers…stand up, be proud and speak out.
Tracy M. Soska, Chair,
Association for Community Organization and Social Administration
http://www.acosa.org
tsssw@pitt.edu
412-580-2317
September 5th, 2008 at 11:07 pm
I am incensed by the disrespect and appalled by the ignorance of Giuliani and Palin towards my profession. I have been a community organizer all my life whether I worked with organizing institutes, religious communities, large non-profit organizations, or most recently as a Field Office Director of the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. It is what I do and what I do best. If you read Leadership and the New Science by Margaret Wheatley or Leadership through Conflict by Mark Gerzon, then you will know what CO is about and how it contributes to Leadership in both the public and private sectors. It is the opposite of the demogogic or bureaucratic leadership that G & P embody which decides and dominates without taking people into account. Leadership in CO is the opposite of partisanship because it works by consensus and holds people together. It is not just speaking truth to power as Mills would say or truth to the powerless as Hitchens would say. Organizing is a way of listening that brings out truth through the process of engagement with people. It is power with–not power over or power against people. It is the opposite of arrogance, of claiming to know the way and the truth and what is best for the people. When G & P belittle CO, they exemplify the type of leadership this country and world needs least. They attack the tradition of Sam Adams and Jane Adams, of Sojourner Truth and Walter Reuther, of Saul Alinsky and Dorothy Day. They disrespect and are ignorant about community organizing because they make leadership only about them and not about the rest of us.
September 5th, 2008 at 11:36 pm
Community organizing is the backbone of community building-It is what is needed to inspire ownership and leadership of individual and collective movements and social action. It is unfortunate that the Republican leadership does not know nor value what truly has made this country what it is. It is an arrogrant and ignorant on their part which only convinces many of us how truly disconnected they are.
September 6th, 2008 at 12:22 am
I have been an effective community organizer my entire adult life in Chicago! I am very proud of my work to empower public housing residents, saving the histoirc South Shore Cultural Center from demolition and preserving historically significant buildings within the Black Metropolis Historic District.
Currently as a direct consequent of my 30 year career as a community organizer in the historic Bronzeville community, we have saved, restored and opened a Bronzeville Visitor Information Center and exhibit Gallery in the landmakr Supreme Life Insurance Company building and created a “bottom-up” civic engagement initiative around congressional legislation (HR5505) focused on the formation of the Black Metropolis National Heritage Area.
View http://www.bronzevilleonline.com
for more information call 773-373-2842
September 6th, 2008 at 1:11 am
I composed the following e-mail to my local Republican Party chapter:
Members of the Mahoning Valley Republican Party:
I am not a member of any particular political party, a so-called independent. While my political views may be considered “liberal”, I am open to real progress that conservatives bring to our country. Most recently, I am pleased that President George Bush established one of the country’s largest marine sanctuaries near Hawaii. I am also proud that President Bush has taken the lead in international debt relief - leadership President Bill Clinton did not seem able to accomplish.
Admittedly, I was skeptical - perhaps cynical - in my thinking about the choice of Gov. Sarah Palin for the vice presidential nomination. Also admittedly, her poise and confidence in the face of strong public scrutiny has begun to change my thinking about her ability to lead in the second-highest political office in America.
Unfortunately, recent comments made by her and other national Republican leaders during the 2008 RNC national convention regarding community organizing have re-ignited caution in me concerning the relevance of Republican leadership in the White House.
Community organizing - and its related faith-based organizing - has played a significant role in shaping America’s political landscape. Womens’ suffrage in the early 1900’s; the Voting Rights Act in the 1960’s; and the Moral Majority / Republican Revolution of the 1980’s / 90’s all succeeded as a result of community-based organizing.
Gov. Palin’s comments during her nomination acceptance speech on September 3 - particularly her opinion shared on September 3 that a mayor has “more responsibilty” than a community organizer - is bothersome. In their drive to play the “experience card”, national Republican leaders during their convention have apparently forgotten the ample precedent of communities taking responsibility for themselves through community and faith-based organizing.
It is my understanding that a key value of the Republican platform is the minimal role of government in the private lives of citizens, so-called “smaller government”. The role of community organizers - at local, regional, and national levels - is to organize people around issues that directly affect the lives of private citizens. It is curious that Gov. Palin and other national RNC leaders would judge leadership experience based on “big government” titles like mayor, governor, senator, and president.
As a leader and participant in community organizing in Detroit and Youngstown, I have had the joy of working alongside Democrats and Republicans to address series economic and political issues. The power of community-based organizations like MOSES (Detroit) and ACTION (Youngstown) - and of faith-based organizing groups like the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance - is that they seek relationships that transcend party affiliation. Locally, I have joyfully worked with community leaders of both political parties to address racism and poverty in the Valley.
It is my understanding that bipartisanship and responsibility are key ideas in the McCain / Palin ticket. It is sad that McCain / Palin supporters feel the need to mock, patronize, or otherwise belittle the leadership qualities and abilities of community organizers, whose success or failure depends in large part upon bipartisanship and responsibility.
As a registered voter of the United States of America, I am no closer to casting a ballot for a McCain / Palin administration.
Thank you for your time, and thank you for your work in support of the Mahoning Valley.
In God’s Peace,
Rev. Robert A. Johnson, Youngstown
Luke 11:42; 21:19; Acts 10:38
September 6th, 2008 at 7:09 am
Dear Friend,
In her acceptance speech […] at the Republican National Convention, Vice Presidential nominee and Alaska Governor Sarah Palin said, “I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a `community organizer,’ except that you have actual responsibilities.”
Nominally, her words were an assault on Barack Obama’s early career as a community organizer on Chicago’s south side. But the impact reaches farther than that and is a direct affront to the thousands who have dedicated their lives to making America great.
Community organizing is the heart and soul of American democracy. We are privileged to live in a country where people with the energy and passion to dream of a better world can put in the sweat and shoe leather to build social movements from the ground up. Indeed, if it weren’t for the sacrifice of organizers, we wouldn’t have many of the opportunities we take for granted today — from the 40-hour work week and the minimum wage to protections for a woman’s right to choose and the right of African Americans to vote.
In fact, Sarah Palin would never have been able to take the stage as the nominee at a national political convention if it weren’t for community organizers of the past who dreamed of, fought for, and won the right of women’s suffrage.
Americans dedicate themselves to public service in many ways, and everyone who gives of themselves for the betterment of our nation — from small-town mayors to community organizers — should be recognized and honored for their valuable contribution.
Tell Governor Palin to apologize for her remarks regarding community organizers. Go to:
http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/community_organizers/?r_by=807-1498296-qb8JHVx&rc=paste
Thanks!
September 6th, 2008 at 8:31 am
Community Organizers and the Renaissance of Old Milwaukee
In 1977 I bought a lovely English cottage on a small bluff overlooking a nature preserve and the Milwaukee River, in an integrating neighborhood called “Riverwest.” I made this purchase against the advise of more risk averse friends and relatives because community organizers in a group called “ESHAC”(Eastside Housing Action Committee) had been working in the neighborhood for the previous 4 years and three of the main organizers had purchased homes in the neighborhood. Within two weeks of my purchase, the “Milwaukee Journal”(major daily) ran a front page story with a map of Milwaukee portraying Riverwest as a deteriorating community. The ESHAC community organizers mobilized a rainbow working class coalition to “Change the Map” and won a front page designation of Riverwest as an “Improving Neighborhood.” Thirty years later Riverwest remains an integrating neighborhood, with people worried more about developers ravaging the Milwaukee River “Central Park” than about identity differences. Community organizers tireless work, which continues in Riverwest, has made this neighborhood, and others like it in Milwaukee, an inspiring place to live, work, and play. Community organizers are the heavy lifters and detail angels of Milwaukee’s renaissance, captured in hundreds of stories and pictures at this site, which owes much of its glory to the nobel trade of community organizer.
http://www.milwaukeerenaissance.com/Main/HomePage
Viva, community organizers!
September 6th, 2008 at 8:55 am
Dear NY Times Editor:
Re Article: “Palin Assails Critics and Electrifies Party” September 4, 2008
Clearly Governor Palin and former Mayor Rudy Giuliani do not understand and do not respect the work of thousands of community organizers working in myriad urban neighborhoods and rural communities across this country. Their ridicule of this noble and honorable skilled profession that Barak Obama committed himself to after college is an affront to the millions of low income and working class people who are struggling to improve their conditions and better the lives of themselves and their neighbors. Community organizers have been unknown by much of the American public and now is the time to introduce the importance of their work to the American people. It is precisely because they work at the grassroots level behind the scenes that they are invisible to the media, many politicians and much of the public. Community organizers help bring ordinary people together to collectively problem-solve and strengthen their communities. Governors have the power and authority along with the responsibility to make decisions. Community organizers must be more skilled because they must persuade and influence others through democratic processes. They work across age, gender, racial and ethnicity and party lines with skill and dedication. They assist in improving housing, health care, schools, the environment, social services with the people. They build and support local leadership and help people create the kind of organizations that give invisible people a voice in the political process. Many community organizers receive training through organizations inside and outside academia that provide the knowledge, skills and strategies to make change. Schools of Social Work across this country like mine have been providing an education in this field to thousands of committed graduate students for almost a century. They work long hours with too low pay “in the trenches” to bring people out of poverty and despair, instill hope and opportunity, and create resources. They are the glue that keeps many communities from disintegrating and falling into despair and decay. To Sarah Palin, Rudy Giuliani, and John McCain, there are many ways to serve this country, to fight injustice and inequality, and to build a secure America. We should honor the work, dedication and competence of community organizers.
Professor Terry Mizrahi
Chair, Community Organizing, Planning and Development Program
Hunter College School of Social Work
to learn about our CO route to an MSW 212-452-7112
September 6th, 2008 at 9:14 am
Angela:
First, thank you for this response to the RNC attack on Community Organizers.
As you know, I am just a scrappy litigator (for those reading, a term of endearment bestowed upon my by Angela during tough community negotiations here in New Orleans). On a good day, my community organizer colleagues — whom I support through Louisiana Justice Institute — allow me to identify as one of them.
Post Hurricane Katrina, I have had the distinct privilege of working with phenomenal community organizers all along the Gulf Coast of the U.S. For those republicans who can’t begin to understand fully what it is that community organizers do, allow me to provide a few examples:
1. When the U.S. Government failed to provide immediate assistance to those individuals stranded in New Orleans and many other Gulf Coast cities, community organizers gathered and provided food, shelter and clothing. It was Common Ground Relief and ACORN that forced NOLA, the State of Louisiana, and the federal government to re-open the Lower 9th Ward.
2. When the U.S. Government and the State of Louisiana’s Department of Education stated emphatically that one of our best and finest schools, Dr. Martin Luther King Elementary School, would not reopen, it was community organizers such as the local SCLC branch and the NAACP that marched, sat-in, wrote letters, and galvanized this community to rebuke that foolhearted decision. This school has been rebuilt and open at its original site for 2 years, educating students better than most of our state run elementary schools.
3. When the State of Mississippi and the federal government completely ignored renters hurting because no CDBG funding was provided to cover their losses, it was organizations like Coastal Women for Change, the Katrina-Ritaville Express (go Derrick Evans), and the Mississippi Center for Justice — organizers and attorneys — who fought and continue to fight for small communities. I suppose ’small’ is a relative term since most of these communities are larger than Governor Palin’s former hamblet.
4. And now, in the aftermath of Hurricane Gustav, it has been the Greater New Orleans Organizers Roundtable — some 70+ organizations — that worked quickly to call our members and clients to insure they could evacuate to safety, that set-up a website with up-to-date information (www.gustavsolidarity.org), that made scores of calls to our federal officials to demand FEMA provide cash to our distressed friends, neighbors, and relatives (see, http://www.justiceroars.org), and that organized volunteers to great our city assisted evacuees as they return to the city, so that we can take testimony from them concerning their living conditions in the federal government’s evacuation shelters.
I could go on, but I’m too angry to continue typing this list.
Much of the work performed by community organizers would not be necessary if the federal and state governments would simply do their jobs. Unfortunately, the social well-being of our most in-need friends, relatives, and neighbors, has come to the doors of community organizers, their organizations, and NGOs. But I don’t print money, and none of us is fully equiped to perform these government functions.
To the extent RNC folks make fun of community organizers and their institutions, shame on the RNC. We are your hockey/baseball/soccer/pick-up basketball moms!
Tracie L. Washington, Esq.
President and CEO
Louisiana Justice Institute
http://www.louisianajusticeinstitute.org
http://www.JusticeRoars.org
September 6th, 2008 at 10:26 am
It seems that, while in some ways effective, we as community organizers have also failed on some points. The number of men of color (Black and Latino) who are awarded PhDs is still at or about less than 1% for each population. The number of women of any color who are awarded PhD perhaps may appear to be improving, but when taking the total number of women world wide into consideration the number is also grossly below the frequency that women appear in our general population.
Poverty rates, rates of incarceration, percentage of those who make over $250,000 a year…, and most sadly perhaps, because it projects inequities into our future, our children are being failed, in general, by our public school systems. The children are being failed while we appear to be allowing the militarization of our schools with larger minority student populations. Moreover, the Administrators of these school systems continue to point their well-compensated fingers at those with the least amount of power and authority to change the conditions of our educational hegemony – they appear to continue to deflect responsibility away from themselves and onto the teachers, parents, and the students.
It seems to be, from my anecdotal experiences, that once money starts being injected into the community originations from the mainstream – ‘the represented radical idea of helping those in need’, is somehow displaced by the desire of those making salaries well in excess of those they once were helping, keep their incomes and in their wish to continue to receive this funding – slowly conform to the agendas of those supplying the funding and assimilate into their ideological identity.
September 6th, 2008 at 3:51 pm
The fact that they claim ignorance of a position that is central to the democratic process speaks for itself, don’t you think? And for people who so often invoke scripture, how is it that they fail to recognize those great, ancient community organizers Peter, Paul, Moses and Aaron? I could make a case for Jesus too.
Bonnie McEwan, President
MAKE WAVES: Impact Marketing for Nonprofits
http://www.makewavesnotnoise.com
September 7th, 2008 at 11:56 am
What is a “Community Organizer”?
It does not surprise me that someone in government has “NO IDEA” as to what a Community Organizer is. I am a life long resident of Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana…Ya’ no ‘dat lil’ tip on the boot…sticking out in the Gulf of Mexico on da’ end of Louisiana…cher! In my life I have experienced 5 major hurricanes…Betsy, Camille, Andrew, Katrina and Gusta and number 6 is bearing down on this region and my home community once more. I watched in the first 2 as the tears fell in the eyes of my parents…loosing our home and everythign 2 times within 4 years. I now have had that same experience in Katrina and within a 2 week period of time possibly, Ike. I have watched, lived and experienced the shelters, the crowding, the stench and the devastation. I am now 49y/o and a pastor of a small church in the bayou and the SHELTER we have experienced, was the promises of my Federal, State and Local Governments, “TO MAKE US WHOLE…” the wind and rain huffed and puffed and blew that lie down. The CROWDING we have experience was hundreds of thousands of people across the Gulf Region left without adequate help…in March after Katrina everyone left us in Plaquemnines parish…the Red Cross pulled out, FEMA pulled out and and the National Gaurd pulled out. I called the Lt. Col. in the National Gaurd who controlled the resources sent to my community…I begged her to not remove the distribution site whic was supplying our ONLY SOURCE of safe drinking water and ice. She replied…” If the calf does not ever get off the tit, it will never stand on it’s own!” I have experienced the STENCH of the dead trees, swereage and animals and for a longer time the STENCH of a DEAD Government and the lack of movement to help the communties across the Gulf Coast and in our case the community that is ALWAYS 1st hit and worst hit. Plaquemines Parish provides billions to this country in seafood and energy and we recieve no REAL assistance in these extreme times of need. Plaquemines Parish is the door way to billions of dollars of commerce through the Mississippi River and in this filthy rich corridor lives some of the best, strong and Faithful people in the world and yet we are the most forgotten and overlooked, poor and impovereshed! Housing, food and water, levee’s and erosion….these sre the words you across the country hear and you are dismayed by their price tag…billions! Let us if you will take the “red pill” and see the “matrix” for what it is… it is not bout these things…it is about American Values and American Morals and American Character…it is About American Justice! I have lived, and cried and bled to help my family and my community. We spend billions to ask for people to serve in their communities…I have..in the US Marines…in Katrina and Gustav and I will serve through Ike…but it comes down to a couple of questions…How many?
How many does it take? Our youn men and women have served this country through out this countries history. We have burried our mothers, fathers, daughters and son’s and NOW OUR mothers, fathers, sons and daughters serve on the front lines making the ULTIMATE SACRIFICE for their country and while they are there…their country is leaving their famalies, their children, their home communities..the one’s they dream of comming back to when their tour is over, devastatded and torn apart…so I ask, ” How many Americans citizens does it tak for our country to love and care for us as WE have cared for it? A Community Organizer…I don’t know we have provided 7 million pounds of water, food and ice; 50 homes and hundreds of thousands of dollars in assistance to the good people of my community…no one else would, no one else ever has…I am some one who believes that “Faith is a purposeful act of living”… that what a man professes to believe he must live out in daily life, no matter what that life brings. A community organizer, yes, someone who asks, What in God’s name are you doing? and Why in God’s name are you not doing…? Someone who cares.
September 8th, 2008 at 10:04 am
So many words . . . Yet the old adage that states “your actions speak so loudly that I can’t hear what you are saying” is so true, and especially in this instance. It is not the incompetency and ignorance of the politically powerful and economically wealthy that leads them to question the value of the common soldier in the trenches of poverty. I, for one, am happy that their incompetency and ignorance are still intact; otherwise I would be bedazzled by their positions. If there has been any impact on the several wars I have experienced over the decades — War on Poverty, War on Drugs, War on Ineducation — it has come through the actions of community activists. Bureaucratically, those wars have failed. Down in our neighborhoods, the wars are being won. What is a community organizer? He or she is the diamond politician who juggles all social strata to achieve a single goal. He or she is not the recipient of a governmental salary that imposes limitations on their visions and their possibilities. Our job is to put ourselves out of a job. We struggle to solve tomorrow’s problems today. We don’t act, or fail to do so, because our constituency may not vote for us next election. We have no need to belittle or insult politicians; politicians are making asses of themselves. I call for the privatization of county services in every state because I believe that community organizations can better address the problem with less corruption and incompetence. Communtiy organizers are the inventors of the social work world; invention is not the sole province of the private sector. Community organizers, let us not attack the meaningless words of the politicians. Let us change policy by writing legislative bills from our own point of view.
September 8th, 2008 at 11:23 am
As an UNPAID community organizer, I find the RNC mocking treatment of my 60 hour work week beyond insulting. We have managed to open a volunteer-run community library because the county library system does not see fit to provide one in our tiny town, despite the fact that we are an hour from the nearest library and 20 percent of the households here do not have access to transportation on a regular basis. We are raising money to match a grant for the city because the city does not have the funds needed; we are working to raise funds to restore important architectural assets; and we are working to provide drug-diversion programs for the young folks in the community. All this for no money and with no political ambition, only a desire to be responsible to the people of this 1000 population Appalachian community. Of course, nothing any of us does here is worthwhile…we deserve to be mocked, right?
September 8th, 2008 at 12:35 pm
I guess a community organizer is sort of like a small town mayor, except community organizers often times are the ones doing the real, hard work, while politicians are the ones who get the credit.
September 8th, 2008 at 2:33 pm
Jesus of Nazareth was a community organizer who created change. Pontious Pilate was a governor with a heart as cold as Alaska in December.
September 8th, 2008 at 4:16 pm
As a resident of Plaquemines Parish, I have experienced 5 major hurricanes…Betsy, Camille, Andrew, Katrina and Gustav. Now, Ike takes aim at our coast once more. I remember the tears, stress and devastation of Betsy and Camille in my parents and grand-parents eyes. I remember the shelters and the fear…I remember the uncertainty and confusion within our community.
Now, as an adult I have experienced the same emotions having lost everything in Katrina and sustained damage and loss in Gustav. Since Katrina visited our community destroying everything in its path we have worked tirelessly to help our parish recover. We came back and suffered through the hot summer days and nights unloading truck after truck of supplies, over 7 million pounds and building 20,000 wheel barrel after wheel barrel of food and water for residents across Plaquemines Parish. Three years later, we have provided 50 homes to residents and worked with Parish, State and Federal Government, National Philanthropy Organizations and private donors to provide for the residents of our parish and to bring in over 200 more homes for donation to our residents helping them to stabilize their lives and our communities.
Through out this difficult time, we have supported residents with financial assistance for medicine, doctor visits, groceries, house notes, utility bills, school supplies, school uniforms, tuition, books and many, many more needs. We have supported parish workers and our good men and women of the Sheriffs Office with water, drinks, food and ice as they did their jobs serving the men and women of our parish.
We have formed partnerships with State organizations like the Louisiana Farm Bureau and the Louisiana Disaster Recovery Foundation. Within our community we have developed relationships with local churches, Port Sulphur Baptist Church, Jesus Call Missionary Baptist Church, Zion Travelers Cooperative and St. Patrick’s Catholic Church. We have worked meeting the needs we can and helping residents get in touch with resources that we did not have.
Today, we are faced with returning residents who are broke financially due to the great expense of this evacuation and now, possibly facing another with the threat of hurricane Ike. It is a very difficult situation, especially in view of the inadequate response, once more of FEMA. We are and have been, in Plaquemines Parish rebuilding and surviving on our Faith in God and reliance of the limited and strapped resources of the Faith community. It has been the churches and philanthropic organizations that have seen this process through. Government has Failed miserably for one of two reasons…inept people in positions of power and decision making or just plain old not giving a care about what they are supposed to do. I want to qualify this statement a bit…there are good men and women on the ground who have labored intensely and with superhuman dedication to help those in their charge, but it is those “knuckle heads” who sit above them in the higher management levels who delay and can’t seem to get the job done or get the resources that these people on the ground beg for and request over and over again.
With 10 volunteers we have set up, ordered and began delivering over 70,000 pounds of food and supplies to our community. We have fed people a hot meal, bought fuel for generators, given assistance for electric bills, phone bills and medicine, provided housing for 40 community members, served over 150 meals during our evacuation and brought our people home helping to sustain them until power and safe water is restored. We have coordinated our efforts with the parish government and even helped unload their trucks at the ONLY pod site on the lower end of the west bank which by the way is manned by 3 guys with truck loads of stuff and a huge fork lift…we unloaded our tractor trailer of food by hand with 5 volunteers and my 11 year old son.
Thanks to the help of Mr. Williams and Mr. Flozell Daniels, Housing programs director and executive director, respectively of the Louisiana Disaster Recovery Foundation; Rev. John Vaughn and Julia Beaty of the 21 CF Foundation, Fernando at the Southern Mutual Help Foundation and Ezra at the Rockefeller GCF; The Louisiana Justice Institute-Tracie Washington, Executive Director and Michelle Roberts and Monique Harden of Environmental Justice…we would be in deep stuff down here in Plaquemines. But these courageous people lead courageous organizations and make courageous decisions to HELP and get in the dirt with us side by side providing the necessary resources to make and effective and decisive difference in peoples situation and lives. There are many, many other individuals and organizations that have also contributed to help us and for ALL and to ALL my community and I are grateful.
Next Steps
1.) We will continue to feed and sustain people with the resources we have, providing a hot meal every evening starting at 4:00pm and continuing we run out of food or people to feed for that evening.
2.) We need to coordinate another shipment of food and safe drinking water from America’s Second Harvest and find the resources to buy more meat and fixins’ to keep the hot meal program running until we get power back (5 to 7 days I’m told)
3.) Prepare to move within 24 hours of another evacuation if IKE comes a callin’.
Conclusion:
“Faith is a purposeful act of living!”
I believe in my God and HIS Word, I believe in the goodness of my fellow man, I believe in my friends, family members and relatives for I have seen them time and time again recover, rebuild and go on with little or no substantial sustainable help whatsoever.
With your continued support, prayers and guidance we will recover…we will survive and we will make ourselves whole…because if we don’t do it…they have proven that THEY can’t do it…we are lost…and my community will not fall and die in this government created desert.
Please keep us in your prayers…
Rev. Dr. Martin Denesse
Pastor-Grace Harbour Christian Ministries.
September 8th, 2008 at 4:38 pm
This letter to the editor made it into the Oregonian newspaper.
Friday, September 05, 2008
The Oregonian
Cheap shot offends
Sarah Palin got big applause in her acceptance speech by saying, “I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a community organizer, except that you have actual responsibilities.”
I’m a community organizer, and I take exception to this cynical attack.
For the last 16 years I’ve led a neighborhood revitalization organization serving low-income Portland communities. Unlike Washington, D.C., politicians, I can’t spend money my organization doesn’t have. In the 26 years that John McCain has been in Washington, the federal budget has been balanced only four times.
In my job, I’ve also got to keep the roofs over the heads of hundreds of families, pay dozens of mortgages and countless other bills, and meet payroll every month. Those sound like actual responsibilities to me.
When I cast my ballot in November, I’ll decide based on the actual record of the candidates, not cheap sound bites.
NICK SAUVIE Southeast Portland
September 15th, 2008 at 5:25 pm
I applaud all the responses giving a definition of what a Community Organizer is or does, and all these people are doing wonderful work across this USofA but those “scalawags” (according to Webster: A white Republican Southerner during Reconstruction) who scoffed and laughed at that term and mocked the people who are working in the trenches like Sen. Obama did in Chicago, know exactly what we/they do on a day-to-day basis providing services and information to enhance quality of life within their communities. Ignorance and misinformation is at the root of the Republican Party attacks on Sen. Obama so to waste time and energy trying to explain something that is already clearly defined historically represents a sad state of affairs in American politics.
September 16th, 2008 at 6:34 pm
Before Karen Bass was elected Speaker of the California Assembly–the second-most-powerful job in the nation’s largest state, with over 36 million people–she was a community organizer. Her colleagues selected her for the post earlier this year because during her four years in the legislature she displayed the skills she’d learned as a grassroots activist–identifying key issues, finding solutions, developing strategies to win, mobilizing people and forging coalitions by listening to and finding common ground among people with diverse backgrounds and interests.
Peter Dreier’s article in the Nation: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080922/dreier
November 21st, 2008 at 3:18 pm