Community Organizing: Pass it on!

Americans have been organizing to build community and hold government accountable since our nation was formed, but this election there is more talk in the national media about modern community organizing than at any time in recent history.

When speakers at the Republican National Convention repeatedly mocked Senator Obama's work as a community organizer many of us witnessed not just another political attack, but mean-spirited disrespect for people who give of themselves to improve communities and expand opportunities for families.

As former president of the PICO board of directors (ACT belongs to the PICO Network), Bishop Roy Dixon said, "As a life-long Republican, the comments I heard last night about community organizing crossed the line. It is one thing to question someone's experience, another to demean the work of millions of hard-working Americans who take time to get involved in their communities. We see the fruits of community organizing in safer streets, new parks, and new affordable housing. It's the spirit of democracy for people to have a say and we need more of it." 

Fr. John Baumann, who founded PICO 35 years ago, said in an Associated Press story that ran in papers across the country that "If people in office were doing their jobs, perhaps we wouldn't need community organizers."

Now, those of us who organize—both as volunteer leaders in our communities and as professional organizers—have been handed a gift—a unique opportunity to explain to a much broader audience the value that community organizing plays for us in making government work effectively and in building character and leadership among ordinary people.

Across this country, families are grappling with tremendous challenges—skyrocketing health care costs, rising cost of living, stagnating wages, ballooning mortgage payments, failing public schools, increasing violence in their neighborhoods… While these issues have a direct impact on millions of Americans, you'd be hard pressed to find many ordinary people who feel like they have the power to have a meaningful impact on most of these issues.  These problems feel overwhelming.

For ACT, community organizing begins with the belief that, when people come together, share their common concerns—and their common dreams—and then take action, something amazing happens. People discover that they can solve community issues that once seemed overwhelming. 

While people should decide for themselves which candidate would make the best president, we disagree with the suggestion made by Rudy Guliani and Governor Palin last week that being a community organizer does not prepare someone to be an effective public servant and leader.

For ACT, every aspect about the work of community organizing—from taking the time to listen to people, to researching solutions to problems, to bringing people together across race, religion and party affiliation—is engineered to develop the skills and leadership of ordinary people.  ACT teaches that devoting yourself to developing the leadership skills of others is what a true leader does.

At ACT we don't ask whether someone is a Republican or Democrat, but whether they are doing their job.  We reject any suggestion on the right or the left that community organizing belongs to any one political party.  All across the United States both Republican and Democratic elected officials have worked with PICO organizations to reduce crime through community policing, build public will for schools reform, revitalize neighborhoods and create affordable housing.

There are always those in power who dismiss people who want to get involved. That arrogance is folly.  Those who understand the history of the United States, those who hear the call to witness God's love in the world, realize that mayors and governors and presidents alone cannot solve the problems we face as a nation.  Only when people get involved, only when people have the power to hold the powers that be accountable can we create a world that respects each of us in God's image.

Join us as we work to transform the political culture of the United States so that every person's voice can be heard and government serves the needs of all families.

Organizing.  Pass it on!