query: organizer-politicians

Tue Sep 9 21:05:58 CDT 2008

[ed:  Peter has already sent out his article (see post just above the 
quoted text), but it is still quite an impressive list people gathered 
so far.]

From: "Donaldson, Linda P." <DONALDSON at cua.edu>

Don't forget the late Sen. Paul Wellstone from Minnesota!

Linda

Linda Plitt Donaldson, PhD
Catholic University of America
National Catholic School of Social Service

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From: "PrattWorks" <prattworks at earthlink.net>

Majority Leader Chris Donovan, CT.

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From: benshepard at mindspring.com

Thanks for the
earlier piece.
It was really great.

You can also mention Tom Hayden of the SDS and LA state assembly.
Tom Duayne - NY Assembly - former member of ACT UP
 etc....

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From: maanav <maanav at gmail.com>

Paul Wellstone

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[ed:  this message is forwarded by Frances]

From: "Frances Kunreuther" <fkunreuther at demos.org>

GOP pols' latest slur proves just how out of touch they are

Sunday, September 7th 2008, 4:00 AM

The ugly spectacle last week of hearing GOP leaders direct scorn at 
community organizers - all community organizers - displayed a level of 
contempt for grass-roots democracy that was downright un-American.

Not to mention self-defeating in a close national campaign in which the 
campaign of John McCain - which has far less to spend than that of 
Democrat Barack Obama - is going to need every door-knocking volunteer 
neighborhood activist it can find.

You'd never know it from the mockery the Republicans have scripted into 
campaign events, belittling the inner-city work Obama did after 
graduating from Columbia University.

"What in God's name is a community organizer?" asked ex-Gov. George 
Pataki at a Republican Convention breakfast. "I don't even know if 
that's a job."

Ex-Mayor Rudy Giuliani echoed the party line from the convention podium 
while introducing Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the vice presidential 
nominee. "[Obama] worked as a community organizer," said Giuliani in a 
voice dripping with contempt. "Okay, okay, maybe this is the first 
problem on the résumé," he added, to roars of laughter from the crowd.

Palin got yuks of her own with this nasty zinger: "I guess a small-town 
mayor is sort of like a community organizer, except that you have actual 
responsibilities."

Their ignorance is breathtaking. Virtually every significant political 
movement in American history, including the insurrection that gave birth 
to our nation, has depended on community organizers. They do the tough, 
thankless work of scheduling meetings, knocking on doors and showing 
people how to vote, protest and unionize as a group instead of as 
isolated individuals.

Why do you think the First Amendment of the Constitution protects the 
people's right to "petition the government for a redress of grievances"?

The students who ventured into the segregated South - suffering threats 
and even death while persuading black citizens to register - were 
community organizers. So were the union activists who fought to win 
basic protections like the minimum wage and the 40-hour work week.

Martin Luther King Jr., perhaps the best-known community organizer of 
the last 50 years, shares the spotlight with lesser-known heroes like 
Jessie de la Cruz, an ex-field hand who helped fight the low pay and 
disease-filled working conditions of agricultural laborers.

Paul Revere and Thomas Paine? Community organizers. Ditto for Frederick 
Douglass and Susan B. Anthony.

And ditto for conservatives like Howard Jarvis, leader of the modern 
anti-tax movement, and the late Rev. Jerry Falwell, who organized faith 
communities into the Moral Majority.

Organizers aren't taking the mockery lying down. A blog called 
"Organizers Fight Back" has popped up to bring some facts to the table.

Here in New York, Maria Mottola, director of the New York Foundation and 
herself an ex-organizer, has begun sharing a list of well-known 
activists whose positive role in improving city life is undisputed. The 
roster includes Majora Carter, winner of a MacArthur Foundation "genius 
award," who has worked tirelessly to clean up polluted sites in the 
South Bronx, and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who organized 
against anti-gay violence before entering electoral politics.

Yours truly even got an honorable mention for the years I spent working 
with community credit unions to provide small loans to low-income New 
Yorkers - some of the most fulfilling times of my life.

The group is circulating a line that skewers Palin, a vocal evangelical: 
"Jesus was a community organizer, and Pontius Pilate was a governor."

Expect many more organizers to keep turning up the heat on Giuliani and 
the other GOP nitwits between now and Election Day - including 
conservative activists who will be struggling to turn out the vote for a 
candidate and party that doesn't seem to appreciate them.

elouis at nydailynews.com

Maria Mottola

Executive Director

New York Foundation

(212) 594-8009

Please note: 

The New York Foundation has moved. 

Our new address is:

New York Foundation

10 East 34th Street, 10th Floor

New York, NY 10016

Phone: (212) 594-8009*

* Our phone number remains the same.

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

From:
"Peter Dreier" <dreier at oxy.edu>
Date:
Mon, 8 Sep 2008 12:53:01 -0700
To:
"Peter Dreier" <dreier at oxy.edu>

Friends and Colleagues:

Despite what Sarah Palin and other GOP luminaries said last week, it's 
not that big a leap from the difficult work done by community organizers 
and the pragmatic work of coalition-building done by elected officials. 
In my article in today's Nation magazine 
(http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080922/dreier), I list some prominent 
public officials who once worked as organizers, and examine in some 
detail the transition of Karen Bass from one of Los Angeles' most 
effective community organizers to her current role as the second most 
powerful elected official in California, Speaker of the Assembly. This 
article follows up my article last week (with John Atlas) that examined 
the history of grassroots organizing as part of American's tradition of 
self-help. (http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080922/dreier_atlas)

Peter Dreier

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Discussion list for COMM-ORG wrote:
> --------
> This is a COMM-ORG 'colist' message.
> All replies to this message come to COMM-ORG only.
> --------
>  
> [ed:  please feel welcomed to copy COMM-ORG with replies to Peter's query.]
>
> From: "Peter Dreier" <dreier at oxy.edu>
>
>
> Friends,
>  
> I want to write another piece, to follow up my Nation piece, on former 
> organizers who became elected officials -- in order to point out, 
> contrary to Sarah Palin, that the skills and experiences of being an 
> organizer are useful when in public office.  I could use some help in 
> identify some of those folks - the higher profile, the 
> better....particularly mayors, governors, Congressmembers...
>
>  
>
> Off the top of my head, I can think of the following:
>
>  
>
> Cong. John Lewis
>
> Senator Barbara Milkulski of Maryland
>
> Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky of Illinois
>
> Karen Bass, California assembly speaker
>
> LA Mayor Antonio Villaragoisa (former union organizer)
>
> Former LA City Councilmember and Congressman Ed Roybal
>
> Former Atlanta Mayor and UN Ambassador Andrew Young
>
> Former Pittsburgh Mayor Tom Murphy
>
> Cong. Bobby Rush
>
> CA Senator Gil Cedillo
>
> Jay Westbrook. Cleveland City Council
> Miles Rapoport - former Conn. Sec of State
> Tom Hucker, Maryland general assembly
> Tom Gallagher, former Mass. legislator
> John McDonough, former Mass. legislator
> Donna Edwards, Maryland
> Mark Ritchi - Minn . Sec of State?
> Chrystal Peeples -  New York legislator
> Jesus (Chuy) Garcia - former Illinois state Senator
> Bev Stein - executive of Multnomah County, Oregon
> Beth Low, Missouri state legislator
>  
> Any other ideas?
>
>  
>
> Thanks.
>
>  
>
> Peter
>
> ----------------------------------------
>
> Peter Dreier
>
> E.P. Clapp Distinguished Professor of Politics
>
> Director, Urban & Environmental Policy Program
>
> Occidental College
>
> 1600 Campus Road
>
> Los Angeles, CA 90041
>
> Phone: (323) 259-2913
>
> Email: dreier at oxy.edu
>
> Webpage: http://employees.oxy.edu/dreier
>
>  
>
> "The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in times of great 
> moral crises maintain their neutrality" -- Dante
>
>  
>
>  
>
>
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