[Dialogue] Last Night

[R Williams]

John,
 
I too listened to both Giuliani and Palin.  It's clear neither of them has a clue about organizing, or if they do, they have great disdain for how it allows disenfranchised people to find their voices.  But what really offended me was the rampant cynicism that ran through both speeches and was earmarked by Palin with the little sneer on her lips during her most snide remarks.
 
I believe the Obama campaign now has permission to take the gloves off with her and expose her for who she is, the half-truths she espouses and where she stands on the issues, and not worry about offending anyone.  In the VP debates let Biden be Biden.
 
Thanks for the Obama paper.  Surprised they haven't slammed him for his relation to Alinski.  They may yet if they learn more about community organizing.
 
Randy

--- On Thu, 9/4/08, John Montgomery <monkeyltd at comcast.net> wrote:

From: John Montgomery <monkeyltd at comcast.net>
Subject: [Dialogue] Last Night
To: OE at wedgeblade.net, Dialogue at wedgeblade.net
Date: Thursday, September 4, 2008, 5:10 AM








Dear Friends,
 
A colleague of mine posted a blog the other day pointing out that there were no minorities to be found in any significant numbers at the current Republican convention. Actually, one explanation is that all those Blacks, Latinos, Asians and youth are all there, it is just that perverse liberal media that keeps the cameras from revealing their presence. I did see two black men and one black woman. There was one Asian man but I really did not see anybody obviously Hispanic. I am sure they were there.
 
Not much else needs to be said. I will be glad when our two candidates actually debate each other. Maybe we can move beyond the cute side shows. 
 
The most telling event of the evening was both Giuliani’s and Palin’s apparent ignorance about the time honored strategy of change and empowerment represented by community organizing.  Needless to say, community organizing is about all those people who were not present at the Republican convention tonight. So I hope everybody had a great laugh. It’s one reason; I can’t and won’t vote Republican. It is the reason that tonight I made another donation online for Obama’s campaign.
 
Perhaps, a little background will help here. In the late 80s, following my graduation from seminary, I was hired as the Executive Director of the Institute on the Church in Urban-Industrial Society (ICUIS) in Hyde Park . Perhaps I will come back to this work soon and talk about some of my research, but I thought I would share a paper written by young Obama on the subject. Maybe if Giuliani had read the paper, he wouldn’t have looked so elitist tonight.
 
http://www.edwoj.com/Alinsky/AlinskyObamaChapter1990.htm
 
During the four years I was director of ICUIS, we focused on documenting a new trend in the traditional community organizing strategies of persons like Saul Alinsky and the work of the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF). During that time, I was able to do research on the more than 100 “congregation-based community organizing efforts” across the country and publish several studies. In Chicago , one of the key groups facilitating such organizing was the Gamaliel Foundation that helped organize The Developing Communities Project and GREAT on Chicago ’s Southside. 
 
Obama was right in the middle of these efforts. And it is his instinct as an organizer that makes me so interested in his candidacy. I have paraphrased his comments more than once where he says, “What people don’t get is that it is not about me, but it is about we.” 
 
That is a community organizer talking!
 
 
 
 
John C. Montgomery
monkeyltd at comcast.net
john.montgomery at acfb.org
678-468-4913 (personal)
 
Visit My Blog - Notes From the Balcony
www.monkeyltd.blogspot.com
 
 
 _______________________________________________
Dialogue mailing list
Dialogue at wedgeblade.net
http://wedgeblade.net/mailman/listinfo/dialogue_wedgeblade.net



      
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://wedgeblade.net/pipermail/dialogue_wedgeblade.net/attachments/20080904/7b459b22/attachment-0001.html