You choose: Community organizer vs. moose-hunting Barbie

By Weekly Archive On Sep 10, 2008

You
choose: Community organizer vs. moose-hunting Barbie

By
Alvaro F. Fernandez
alfernandez@the-beach.net

I
want to thank Alaska Governor Sarah Palin for making me so proud to
be a community organizer. During her Republican National Convention
acceptance speech, as John McCain’s vice presidential running mate
this November, she downplayed the importance of Barack Obama’s work
as an organizer in Chicago early in his professional career.

My
first reaction that night was to get mad — “who the heck does this
woman think she is?” I asked no one in particular. But the more I
thought about her performance, the prouder I became of the work I do
and have done over the years. I also realized that Governor Palin,
for all her charisma and good looks, may have lost the election that
night — after she gave that speech. I say this because in her
aggressive manner, she may have insulted her way out of the hearts of
many people she was trying to sway to vote for McCain-Palin come
November.

In
speeches, Mrs. Palin fancies herself a hockey mom, member of the PTA
and part of other such groups which are usually related to… yep!
that’s right: community organizing. So, I concluded, this woman
must have little respect for herself. Or maybe she just doesn’t get
it!

She
claimed to have been chasing Hillary Clinton’s 18 million voters
during the primaries. Fool, I would have told her, don’t you
realize a lot of those millions are people you tried to demean when
you slighted Obama’s community work?

In
today’s world, organizers are usually a few steps ahead of the
politicians. Since we work the street where people live, work and
deal with daily realities, we will usually know, way ahead of the
politicians, what people want from their elected officials.

It
is also the organizer who manages to build consensus in his or her
community and helps to open the eyes of the Sarah Palin’s of this
world.

Citizens
Accountability Network

Her
words reminded me of work I did back in the 1990s with a group of
other community activists who decided we were going to change Miami.
In a way, we did.

This
group included Santiago Leon, a lawyer and insurance representative;
Jason Walker, now a city manager in El Portal, a small community in
the northern end of Miami; Alan Kobrin, a national leader of the
Green Party; myself and others. We’d come together once a week to
plan out how to change this town which was feeling the effects of too
much corruption and bad governance. (Déjà vu?)

We
came up with two suggestions that were pitched to anyone, or any
political body, who would listen, including many politicians at the
county level. Plan one was a better and more enlightened use of the
Internet in order to keep the public better informed of what county
government was doing.

If
you take a look at the county website today you’d probably shrug
this off as a “so what” type proposal. You would not believe how
much resistance we met in the middle half of the 1990s. And I cannot
say Citizens Accountability Network (or CAN as we called ourselves)
was responsible for the wonderful website full of information that
you find today, but believe me we were responsible for putting it on
several politician’s minds at the time. And, in fact, still today
there are suggestions we made more than a decade ago that would help
improve how government runs — allowing the residents more
information.

CAN
members also concluded that the county needed new political faces at
every level of government. (Sound familiar?) We realized that one of
the biggest hurdles was the money in politics. So we proposed a
system of public financing of elections. Former County Commissioner
Jimmy Morales, who ran unsuccessfully for mayor, made this a reality
in Miami (for a small while). Where do you think he came up with his
idea?

There
are more stories. But this one quickly popped in my head.

All
communities have dozens, hundreds and sometimes thousands of persons
who help make their towns, cities and counties run smoother and
better. At times they simply push their elected leaders to improve.
These people are usually unsung. But without them this country would
be a much different place. And not for the better.

Community
activists make a big difference. I would dare tell Governor Palin
that Barack Obama’s community work will probably serve him well if
he becomes president. Then again, maybe what the people of this
country want is a pistol-packin’, moose-hunting Barbie with a good
outside shot on a basketball court.

Just
make sure you vote in November.