Originally posted @ http://wwww.apollogonzales.com/...
I’m pretty new to the world of organizing. In fact, the only time I can remember doing anything remotely like "community organizing" was during high-school when I helped a local business owner try to get on the ballot for the State Senate in Texas. I don’t remember his name, and have no memory of any actual canvassing. I do remember sitting a table with him and other elected officials eating bar-b-q (he asked me to skip the canvass and come along because he thought I’d find it interesting). I remember that he and everyone at the table were big George H. W. Bush fans, and that for some reason I was too. And finally I remember the pizza party he threw for all the canvassers just before the election, and that he thanked us and said we were "terribly critical" to getting him on the ballot.
Regardless, I walked away from that experience knowing that organizing and politics were NOT for me.
Now, 18 years later, I’m organizing for a living. I’m not pounding the pavement, I’m not on the PTA, I’m not getting petitions signed to get speed bumps on the road in front of my house. The community I’m organizing is wired, global, and evolving daily. Some days I wish I was walking door to door helping people in my community, and every day I am thankful that there are people in my community doing the hard work.
My father was a evangelical minister, so I grew up with stories about Jesus, and Moses, and loving thy neighbor. My first bible had drawings of Jesus preaching the sermon on the mount, with dozens of people sitting all around listening to him. I don’t know whether Jesus was divine or not, but I believe he could work a crowd, and one could argue that the "activism" rate associated with his message has been pretty enduring (for good or bad). Those of us in the advocacy world only wish we could come up with a message with so much stickiness and virality.
Two days ago, at the RNC, Rudy Giuliani said the words "community organizer" in such a mocking tone that the internet blew up. After some roaring laughter from the audience, Sarah Palin came up and did the same. Within hours this video was made. Community organizers went nuts on Twitter, in Facebook, and in several blogs. It was like throwing meat to the sharks and asking them not to eat it. The $8 million dollars raised in the next 24 hours was a testament that you do not f’ with organizers. It was one of those moments we all wait for, and it was handed to us on a silver platter.
Then 24 hours later, we watched the video of Cindy McCain’s life. I don’t know about anyone else, but I think (and I may be wrong) she did a little organizing herself. Then John McCain said:
If you’re disappointed with the mistakes of government, join its ranks and work to correct them. Enlist in our Armed Forces. Become a teacher. Enter the ministry. Run for public office. Feed a hungry child. Teach an illiterate adult to read. Comfort the afflicted. Defend the rights of the oppressed. Our country will be the better, and you will be the happier. Because nothing brings greater happiness in life than to serve a cause greater than yourself.
And frankly, I think that says it all. They can sneer all they want, but we are all community organizers, from the streets of Chicago, to the internet, and yes Jesus too. We are the driving force of this country. I only hope that Rudy remembers that when he talks about how New Yorkers came together on 9/11, and that Sarah Palin remembers that when she talks about how she rose from a hockey mom to VP nominee.