community organizing and the GOP convention

Thu Sep 4 20:34:35 CDT 2008

[ed: Here are the initial responses.  The first one is being sent out by 
Credo Mobile (Working Assets).  Following that are posts from 
Nisha/Jennifer, Adrienne, and Hillary]

Dear Friend,

In her acceptance speech last night 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.

I just signed a petition to tell Governor Palin to apologize for her
disparaging remarks about community organizers -- I hope you will too.

Please have a look and take action.

http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/community_organizers/?r_by=807-1423028-s3tlVCx&rc=mailto 

Thanks!

*****************************************

From: "Nisha Agarwal" <nagarwal at NYLPI.ORG> [ed:  The Ruskin forward was 
also sent by
"Jennifer Flynn" <jflynn at healthgap.org>]

It's perhaps worth it to add that community organizers operate just as 
effectively on the right as on the left -- what do the Republicans think 
they're talking about when they talk about their "base"?

From: "Frances Liu" <fliu at thenyic.org>
Date: Thu, 4 Sep 2008 16:31:01 -0400
To: <IAFP2007 at googlegroups.com>
Subject: FW: community organizers fight back!

FYI

________________________________

From: johnraskin at gmail.com [mailto:johnraskin at gmail.com] On Behalf Of 
John Raskin
Sent: Thursday, September 04, 2008 12:51 PM
To: johnraskin at fastmail.fm
Subject: community organizers fight back!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 4, 2008         

Contact: John Raskin, Community Organizer
646-369-8093 (cell)

Community Organizers Fight Back Against GOP Attacks

Organizers demand apology from Alaska governor, say "we're working to 
clean up your mess!"

New York, NY-Community organizers across America, taken aback by a 
series of attacks from Republican leaders at the GOP convention in St. 
Paul, came together today to defend their work organizing Americans who 
have been left behind by unemployment, lack of health insurance and the 
national housing crisis.  The organizers demanded an apology from Alaska 
Governor Sarah Palin for her statement that community organizers have no 
"actual responsibilities" and launched a web site, 
http://organizersfightback.wordpress.com, to defend themselves against 
Republican attacks.

"Community organizers work in neighborhoods that have been hit hardest 
by the failing economy," said John Raskin, founder of Community 
Organizers of America and a community organizer on the West Side of 
Manhattan.  "The last thing we need is for Republican officials to mock 
us on television when we're trying to rebuild the neighborhoods they 
have destroyed.  Maybe if everyone had more houses than they can count, 
we wouldn't need community organizers.  But I work with people who are 
getting evicted from their only home.  If John McCain and the 
Republicans understood that, maybe they wouldn't be so quick to make fun 
of community organizers like me."

Though many people are unfamiliar with community organizing, the job is 
both straightforward and vital: community organizers work with families 
who are struggling-because of low wages, poor health coverage, 
unaffordable housing, and other community problems-so that collectively, 
they can fix those problems and make government respond to their 
day-to-day concerns. Organizers knock on doors, attend community 
meetings, visit churches and synagogues and mosques, and work with 
unions and civic groups and block associations to help ordinary people 
build power and counter the influence of self-interested insiders and 
highly paid lobbyists at all levels of government.

Scorn for community organizers has been a prominent feature of this 
week's Republican convention.  On Wednesday, three Republican leaders 
mocked community organizers:

-Former Governor George Pataki said: "[Barack Obama] was a community 
organizer. What in God's name is a community organizer? I don't even 
know if that's a job."

-Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani said: "On the other hand, you have a resume 
from a gifted man with an Ivy League education. He worked as a community 
organizer. What? [Laughter].I said, OK, OK, maybe this is the first 
problem on the resume."

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

Community organizers were quick to fire back.

"I have 'actual responsibilities,'" said Jacqueline del Valle, a 
community organizer in the Bronx.  "If Mayor Giuliani and President Bush 
cared more about working people instead of just people who can hire 
high-powered lobbyists, maybe I wouldn't have so much responsibility.  
Maybe working people would have an easier time in America today.  But 
that's not our reality, and they don't have to mock us while we're 
trying to clean up their mess."

The community organizers launched a new web site, 
http://organizersfightback.wordpress.com, to defend themselves against 
Republican attacks.  They emphasize that their work will be necessary as 
long as lobbyists have undue influence over American government and the 
economy continues to fail people who work hard and still struggle to 
provide for themselves and their families.

*******************************************************

From: "Adrienne L. Falcon" <afalcon at carleton.edu>

Hello again,

Here is another link which has embedded in it a link to many links.  I 
am pleased to see the New York Times deal with this so quickly.

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/04/south-bronx-organizers-react-to-gop-punchlines/

Adrienne

***********************************************

From:
Hillary Aisenstein <hillarya at pobox.upenn.edu>
Date:
Thu, 04 Sep 2008 19:53:55 -0400
To:
colist at comm-org.wisc.edu

I got this from a list I'm on...  In response to Randy's inquiry about 
the responses of community organizers...

-------- Original Message --------
Subject:     We are community organizers
Date:     Thu, 4 Sep 2008 19:17:55 -0400
From:     Michael Morrill, Keystone Progress <mike at keystoneprogress.org>
Reply-To:     info at keystoneprogress.org
To:     Hillary Aisenstein <hillarya at pobox.upenn.edu>

We were appalled last night as we listened to speaker after speaker at 
the Republican Convention demean the fine work of community organizers.  
It was insulting to the people, young and old, who work to better our 
nation, starting in their own backyard.

We are proud to be community organizers and we are proud that a 
community organizer might be our next president.  We honor the work of 
community organizers, and we urge you to join us in honoring them.

If you appreciate the tireless and sometimes thankless work of these 
agents of democracy, please do two things:

    * 1) Go to: http://www.iamacommunityorganizer.org/ and demand that 
McCain and Palin apologize to the dedicated present and former community 
organizers around the nation;
    * 2) Send this to everyone you know and ask them to sign on.

Thank you in advance for your support.

The Keystone Progress Team
http://www.keystoneprogress.org/

http://www.iamacommunityorganizer.org/

Text of our message to McCain/Palin:

We are community organizers.  We work to bring together neighbors in 
communities across America to solve our common problems and to make life 
better for our families. We work in small towns and the inner cities.  
We work in every state of the Union, from Maine to California to Alaska.

We are community organizers.  We build neighborhood organizations that 
work for the common good.  We teach people to act as part of a 
community, using their shared American values.  We help people recognize 
the power of living in a democracy, where acting together can effect 
real changes.

Community organizers help to build strong neighborhood institutions, 
fight against injustice, develop new leaders, create community-based 
solutions and strengthen existing structures.

It is a serious job that requires the trust of our community, because we 
have real responsibilities that impact the daily lives of our neighbors.

We are community organizers and their supporters. We are proud of the 
work that community organizers do.  And we are offended by the insults 
hurled at us by the McCain-Palin team.  We demand that John McCain and 
Sarah Palin personally apologize for the demeaning attacks on the 
important work that we do to strengthen our communities and our great 
nation.
http://www.iamacommunityorganizer.org/

Discussion list for COMM-ORG wrote:
> --------
> This is a COMM-ORG 'colist' message.
> All replies to this message come to COMM-ORG only.
> --------
>  
> Hi COMM-ORG,
>
> Many of you have no doubt heard about the statements made about 
> community organizing by Rudolph Giuliani and Sarah Palin.  It will be 
> interesting to see how organizers around the country respond.  
> Giuliani's statement was particularly interesting since he was featured 
> in "The Democratic Promise" film about Alinsky's legacy.
>
> Here is the first response that I am aware of. 
>
> http://www.rooflines.org/1084/gop_credo_less_government_no_community_organizing/
>
> I also just got a call from a network news broadcast researcher 
> interested in the reactions of community organizers to these speeches (a 
> bunch of you will hopefully now be getting calls).
>
> Now it is pretty obvious what organizers think of these statements so I 
> don't think we need to waste space on the responsibility and accuracy of 
> them.  What I am interested in is the analysis.  How will organizers 
> respond and what will the impact of these statements be on those who do 
> this work?
>
> Randy Stoecker
> moderator/editor, COMM-ORG
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