Defending Community Organizing

In her Republican convention speech, Gov. Sarah Palin said:

I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a "community organizer," except that you have actual responsibilities.

If the candidates are going to start attacking each other personally, why can't they leave hard working community organizers out of it? It's ironic that as both parties are focused on change, community organizers --- the ones who actually patch the holes and our democracy and help Americans demand change --- are now a political football.

I have the privilege of working everyday with community organizers across the country who wake up everyday burdened by the very real responsibilities of the people in the communities around them for whom our economy and our government isn't working, and hasn't worked, for a very long time. This election, the ranks of poor people, communities of color, factory workers, single moms, elderly Americans, janitors is swelling to include the vast majority of Americans who now realize that our economy and our democracy just is designed to benefit an elite few rather than all of us. The change voters are talking about this year builds on the shared problems community organizers have been helping people identify for decades. The change voters want builds on the solutions community organizers have been nurturing and putting into place, building the leadership of everyday Americans all across our country to demand that America work for everyone.

I thought I'd share this statement, released today, by Deepak Bhargava, Executive Director of the Center for Center for Community Change, a 40-year-old national organization that builds the field of community organizing with hundreds of local organizations nationwide (and for which I work):

When Sarah Palin demeaned community organizing, she didn't attack another candidate. She attacked an American tradition --- one that has helped everyday Americans engage with the political process and make a difference in their lives and the lives of their neighbors.

All across the country, in every state and every community, there are community organizers helping people find shared solutions to the shared problems they face. The candidates for President and Vice President should be working to solve our shared problems, too, rather than attack others who trying to do the same.

From winning living wages to expanding affordable housing to improving the quality of public schools to getting health coverage for the poor and elderly, community organizers have made and will continue to make our communities and our country better for all of us.

The values that community organizers and grassroots leaders represent are not Washington values or Wall Street values but American values, that we care for each other and look out for each other and know we're all interconnected and have a valuable role to play in making our country work for all of us. Candidates should be courting these Community Values, not condemning them.

How's about instead of debating the relative merits of community organizing, the candidates take a cue from community organizers and start talking about the real problems Americans are facing and the real solutions we need.

Follow Sally Kohn on Twitter: www.twitter.com/sallykohn

Comments

[BethanylovesObama]

let's also not forget....­Ghandi was a community organizer as well!

[evekendall]

Martin Luther King, Jr. was a community organizer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King,_Jr.

Mohandas Gandhi was a community organizer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahatma_Gandhi

[evekendall]

Joe Klein of Time magazine on community organizing:

http://www.time-blog.com/swampland/2008/09/what_a_community_organizer_doe.html

[Charmed]

Sarah Palin Knocked this one right out of the ball field, LOL....and she thought she was being charming all while standing up there being condescending and putting people down. Now does anybody think they would do anything for "your" community.­..No they want.

[KSH]

I thought they hit to those of us who work for little of nothing to help others less fortunate than us pretty hard. Mrs. Palin might need to stop hunting so much and step into the real world. In the South most people hunt b/c they want to have food for the winter - not for sport or bragging rights.

[icomaswood]

With the hateful and dishonest commentary Mrs. Palin so proudly displayed this week, I shudder to think of the dark years this country would face, should McCain be elected and Mrs. Palin have any opportunity to influence policy. It is sad that the McCain camp thinks that making their case for the presidency is best stated by belittling community organizers and promoting misinformation about their opponent. Taking for granted the intelligence of the American voter is insulting and not the kind of "change" this country needs.

[DavidK08]

The fact is, community org. have more at stake. A city or state will survive a POS mayor or gov. Heck, look what the country is living through with Bush.

The comm. org.s have the lively hoods of the people they are working for at stake immediatly. How much does someones life change if they can't pay the bills? This is overnight success and failure. I am not an orginizer but salute those who are.

[SensibleAmerican]

You are missing the point Ms. Kohn. Community organizing in itself is good and decent work. BUT, if that is all the experience a person has, it does NOT qualify that person to be the "leader of the free World" and especially NOT our Commander-In-Chief ...

[LeftRight]

Just remember that Jesus Christ was a community organizer, and Pontius Pilate was a governor!

[claylandg]

That's right let's put Jesus and obama on the same level.Did you know that while Obama was a community organizer he was getting minority people registered to vote no good deed done without something in it for him and then of course he ran for office.

[LeftRight]

So, when did Rush tell you that lie?? Obama was organizing and helping LABORERS. He was NEVER registering people to vote!

[avalanch112]

YES!!!!. Ive always said that the GOP makes fun and travializes the exact things that Jesus did, when it doesnt benefit their party.

[FierceEagle]

At least you are no longer denying that you view Obama as the "messiah." ;-)

[Dhalgren]

Dude, three years. 1985-1988. Obama was a kid. Get over it.

[dunno139]

The only thing Mrs Palin has organized is a 23 million debt in a 7000 person community, wow look at her reforming and change she really does care about the small town. After all if it wasn't for small towns who would republicans have to robb.

[chumlette]

The GOP leadership are such hypocrites­...when they criticize community organizers, they are denigrating the very "armies of compassion" they claim to support. Here is a link to a local story in the NY Nonprofit Press today on this very topic:
http://www.nynp.biz/newspage.shtml#1220550936

Thursday, September 04, 2008
Community Organizing is No Joke; Nonprofit Leaders Outraged at Convention Remarks
- fred_scaglione @ 1:55 pm EST

“

[wadehudson]

Spot on! Alas, however, I fear that far too many Americans yearn for a charismatic Authority Figure to whom they can blindly submit and totally trust, whether it be Palin or Obama. One difference between those two, however, is that Palin's personality and record indicates a vengeful, mean spirit. She doesn't really support democratic engagement in the political process. She just wants to use the government to benefit the elite and leave the rest of us on our own to rely on each other and private charity. The Republican Party is now Palin's party, which scares me.

[nccp1870]

So community organizers aren't responsible? Or caring,? Or doing anything important?

What a terrible insult to the greatest community organizer of all time---Jesus Christ.

[jzfischer]

How come no one had a problem with the Obama campaign insulting her experience as a "small town mayor?" When the tables are turned, and she responds by taking on his experience as a "community organizer" suddenly, everyone is up in arms.

[LeftRight]

Because the ONLY reason that we were bringing up her lack of experience is that using the lack of Obama's experience was the only point that McBush raised!

[FierceEagle]

1. Do you really believe McCain only spoke of Obama's inexperience when he's been critical of him? That's just ridiculous. McCain has made clear distinctions between his and Obama's positions on the issues. Wouldn't be much of a race if he didn't.

2. Republicans wouldn't even be talking about Obama's time as "community organizer" if he and his supporters hadn't constantly made reference to it as experience relevant to becoming President of the United States. Maybe if Obama actually had more relevant experience he wouldn't need to pad his resume with such irrelevant fluff. Obama's "community organizer" experience is not at all comparable to the 13 years of elected executive office experience that Governor Palin brings to the table.

3. Why do you continue to compare your Presidential candidate with our Vice Presidential candidate? The answer is that McCain's would so over-shadow Obama's that you ignore that comparison entirely and only compare Palin because she has less experience allowing you to more easily spin Obama as more experienced. If you actually compared apples to apples, there would be no comparison and you know it. Regardless, Palin still beats Obama in the experience department hands down.

[BethanylovesObama]

because Obama didn't call her that!

The only things he's said about her were that she was an 'up and coming public servant' and that we should lay off her family.

[kareneliza]

Her experience as a small-town mayor is from 20 months ago, not 20 years ago. Community organizing is an admirable, difficult job that says a lot about who Barack is as a person, but nobody's trying to claim that it qualifies him to be President; it is the first in a series of accomplishments that led him to the Presidential nomination. Palin's experience as a small-town mayor is a huge part of her claim to executive experience. To hear Palin and the Republicans, you'd think that Obama was a community organizer while Palin was a small-town mayor. No, he was a SENATOR while she was a mayor. Twenty years ago, when he was a community organizer, she was a sportscaster.

[FierceEagle]

"but nobody's trying to claim that it qualifies him to be President"

Nobody accept Obama himself as well as his supporters. Here are just a few quotes from Obama taken from the Democrat Debates. None of this should come as a surprise to anyone who has been paying attention in the least.

"And I also think I have a track record, starting from the days I moved to Chicago as a community organizer . . ."

"I started off as a community organizer, working on the streets of Chicago . . ."

"And so working as a community organizer on the streets of Chicago with ordinary people . . ."

[cariboudenot]

The truth behind the Obama community organizer debate:

The only reason Obama became a so-called "community organizer" was to shore up the appeal of his lackluster resume for his Harvard Law School application. This is the strategy of every applicant, who has ambitious goals like Obama. His motivation to serve as a ‘token’ community organizer was driven more by self-interest than that of the community’s interest. He also aligned himself with the powerful Chicago political machine while he was a community organizer. This is a 100% fact. So, stop griping about Palin’s attack on faux community organizers like Obama. Real and selfless community organizers deserve our respect only.

[victorsays]

I donated for the first time to the Obama campaign after Palin speech. The Republican party came off as rude, smug, and condescending. Not once did they say anthing relevant to the American people. It was attack after attack. It was not an on policy, they did lied, but they attacked the man and the community.

The remark about Community organizer when Obama was 24 disgusted me. Palin was 32 when she became mayor. Obama started right out of college when she was still working on her Sport Journalism degree. She was working as a Sportcaster, when Obama went to Harvard Law.

[JB2]

I work in law enforcement in a large city. Every day I come into contact with dedicated people who work with the homeless, the mentally ill, drug addicts, and the families of murder victims. They bust their butts working in food banks, battered-women shelters, job training centers, and free legal aid clinics for little or no pay.

The nastiness of Governor Palin's comment was depressing - and surprising; despite her extreme right-wing pedigree, she seemed like a nice person. Now we know that she's either a terrible person, or an empty suit pretending to be a terrible person.

[SeanGardner]

Once again, Republicans are trying to eviscerate something substantive about Obama and they put their feet in their mouths. As soon as I saw Rudi Giuliani take a shot at Senator Obama's community organizing roots, I knew it would backfire.

Plus, there is an irony here that the Obama campaign can easily exploit for a TV ad. What is the irony? Well, last week, female lawmakers spoke at The Democratic Convention on the 88th anniversary of The 19th Amendment - which gave women the right to vote. And who ensured the passage of the 19th Amendment? Community organizers like...Sus­an B. Anthony, Margaret Sanger, Elizabeth Stanton, Francis Watkins Harper, and even Jeannette Rankin. These women endured intimidation, slights, beatings, and even the threat of (and sometimes the reality of) incarceration.

The last name I mentioned, Jeannette Rankin, deepens the irony of Gov. Palin’s comments. Jeannette Rankin was, to be clear, one of the community organizers who fought for Ms. Palin's right to vote, as well as the right to be voted in office. Rankin was a Republican lawmaker, like Sarah Palin. Ms. Rankin was the first woman elected to the U.S. Congress. And what's more remarkable is that she was elected in 1916 from the great state of Montana - four years before women had the right to vote. Yes, she couldn't even vote for herself.

So when Palin knocks "community organizers", she disrespects and spits in the face of the legions of women who made her success possible.

[MKJ]

Thank you. Your comment is very enlightening.

[PimpOmega]

Ghouliani hating on community organizers isn't surprising considering how many of them fought against his iron-fisted tenure as mayor of NYC.