query: organizer-politicians

[Discussion list for COMM-ORG]

[ed:  thanks to Andy for the update.]

From: "Andrew Mott" <andymott at communitylearningproject.org>


Slight correction to Dave Beckwith's note.

The Mayor of Hartford is Eddie Perez, not Garcia;   and the City Council
Majority Leader is now Jim Boucher, a longterm organizer and former director
of MACO in Detroit and HART in Hartford.  Brad Lander former ED of Fifth
Avenue Committee is now running for nyc City Council.

Discussion list for COMM-ORG wrote:
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> [ed: thanks to Dave for these.]
>
> from: Dave Beckwith <dbeckwith at needmorfund.org>
>
> Eddie Garcia – Hartford mayor, was a community organizer in the Hartford 
> neighborhoods – CHANE was the group, I think
>
> Peter Ujvagi, formerly Toledo City council President, now OH state 
> Senator, was a founder of the East Toledo Commiuunity Organization and 
> worked for Msgr. Geno Baroni, and was on the CHD Boardd – and the Carter 
> National Commiussion on Neighborhoods
>
> Discussion list for COMM-ORG wrote:
>   
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>>  
>> [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
>>
>> ********************************
>>
>> From: "PrattWorks" <prattworks at earthlink.net>
>>
>>
>> Majority Leader Chris Donovan, CT.
>>
>> **************************************
>>
>> 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....
>>
>> ****************************************
>>
>> From: maanav <maanav at gmail.com>
>>
>>
>> Paul Wellstone
>>
>> *************************************
>>
>> [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
>>
>> ***************************************
>>
>> Discussion list for COMM-ORG wrote:
>>   
>>     
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>>> [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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