That's our job. But I guess there are no "responsibilities" associated with that job. Try telling that to those groups -- and organizers -- funded by CCST Human Development locally, or elsewhere by CCHD throughout the USA.
In their contemptuous attacks on community organizers last night, Republicans George Pataki, Rudy Guiliani and Sarah Palin obviously haven't glanced at the criteria for Community Organizing grants funded by the Catholic Campaign for Human Development office of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops. There's plenty of expectations and "responsibilities" for community organizers funded by CCHD.
But one blogger may be getting to the real agenda behind the attacks.
Another one has formed a blog for organizers to fight back.
Here's ACORN's reaction to the attacks.
And, just for laughs (or tears), in comments to a National Catholic Reporter story on the Palin remark, here's Catholics (apparently) proving again to be as divided over this (seemingly) easy incident as with all other things political.
No comment yet from any U.S. bishops or USCCB leadership, but if so, a mention will likely land on the Catholic News Service website. At the moment, a celebratory photo of John McCain and Sarah Palin adorns the site.
UPDATE: Sen. Obama's own response to the comment:
LANCASTER, Pa. - The work of community organizers, who work for low salaries to help people in impoverished communities, is getting lots of attention this week as Republicans poke jabs at Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama’s job experience.
The three years Obama spent as a community organizer “maybe … is the first problem on the resume,” said former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani in his speech at the Republican convention on Wednesday.
… Obama was a community organizer after college in Chicago. He worked with a church-based group trying to improve conditions in poor neighborhoods and communities hurt when steel plants closed, according to his official campaign website.
He then went to Harvard Law School, became a civil rights lawyer, taught law and ran for the Ilinois State Senate. He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2004.
On the campaign trail on Thursday, Obama told a crowd in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, that the Republicans “really had fun talking about the work I did after college.”
“I don’t know if they understand what it means for a young person, at the age of 22 or 23, to pass up more lucrative options and work with people who are having a tough time and seeing that when people work together, we can do amazing things, rebuilding communities and setting up job training centers and setting up afterschool programs for kids.
“Maybe that’s not really interesting work for Rudy Giuliani, but for the people on the ground who are seeing a difference in their lives, that’s important stuff,” he said.
… At another campaign stop in York, Pennsylvania, he said the remarks about community organizing showed Republicans were out of touch.
“Why would that kind of work be ridiculous?” he asked. “Do they think that the lives of those folks who are struggling each and every day, that working with them to try and improve their lives, is somehow not relevant to the presidency?
1 comment:
Yeah, I thought was pretty terrible, too. And I don't know what the PTA was like in Wasila, but when my mom was in it, they worked to organize events in the community. Hmmm...
Post a Comment