Community Organizers Respond To Palin’s Attack, Cite Civil Rights Movement

[marmar]

via ThinkProgress:



Community Organizers Respond To Palin’s Attack, Cite Civil Rights Movement

Last night during her speech to the Republican National Convention, Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) sought to play up her experience as mayor of a small town in Alaska by mocking community organizing:

PALIN: And since our opponents in this presidential election seem to look down on that experience, let me explain to them what the job involves. I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a “community organizer,” except that you have actual responsibilities.

Today, the nation’s leading organization’s responded to Palin’s attack:

– Center for Community Change: 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.

– Assn. of Community Organizations for Reform Now: ACORN members, leaders and staff are extremely disappointed that Republican leaders would make such condescending remarks on the great work community organizers accomplish in cities throughout this country. The fact that they marginalize our success in empowering low- and moderate-income people to improve their communities further illustrates their lack of touch with ordinary people.

– USAction: These groups, and the millions of individuals they represent, are dismayed by the recent dismissal of their efforts in the form of political attacks. Community organizations have been at the heart of every major reform in modern history – from the Boston Tea Party to the civil rights movement for example, the quest for civil rights began when community organizers mobilized the disenfranchised.

– Community Organizers of America: 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.

Faith In Public Life has more responses from leading community organizers.


http://thinkprogress.org/2008/09/04/organizers-respond-palin/

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. To be fair... Republican values imply the I as paramount, not the we

so nobody should have been that shocked or surprised

[radfringe]

2. they spat on thousands of points of light

From Gov. Mitt Romney, Mayor Rudy Guilliani to Gov. Sarah Palin - Community Organizers are bad. After listening to them I'm convinced community organizers are bad and should be banned.

When a local church group knocks on my door and asks for donations - I will slam the door in their face. When the Salvation Army rings their bell at the corner, I'll kick over their kettle. If the Elks, the Moose, the Rotary Club pleads asks for help with a community project, I will spit in their faces.

If there are donation cans at the cashier counter in my local store which ask for help for someone in need of an operation, I'll pass it by. If my neighbor has a house fire, I'll tell them tough luck - you are on your own. When a hurricane hits, I won't send money. If there's another 9-11 - too bad, I won't give money. The Red Cross wants blood donations? Sorry - YOU ARE A COMMUNITY ORGANIZER!!!

When the local Veterans Organization asks for items to be sent to our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan - they will get nothing from me. Schools - don't call on me to help with a bake sale or a car wash. Hey Girl Scouts - don't bother trying to sell me cookies. Boy Scouts - forget the aluminum can drives. Those cans are mine and you can't have them.

By disparaging Barak Obama's years as a community organizer, the republicans have disparaged all community organizers, all community organizations and all those who volunteer their time and abilities to that community.

"I have spoken of a thousand points of light, of all the community organizations that are spread like stars throughout the Nation, doing good. We will work hand in hand, encouraging, sometimes leading, sometimes being led, rewarding. We will work on this in the White House, in the Cabinet agencies. I will go to the people and the programs that are the brighter points of light, and I will ask every member of my government to become involved. The old ideas are new again because they are not old, they are timeless: duty, sacrifice, commitment, and a patriotism that finds its expression in taking part and pitching in. " --
http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/presiden/inaug/bush.htm

Last night, the republicans spat on thousands of points of light.