Stop Hatin' on Community Organizers!

Opinion by Gregory Lobo Jost
In case you weren't watching last night, a political party repeatedly degraded the role of community organizers at their convention.

Former mayor Giuliani (laughing): "Maybe this is the first problem on [Obama's] resume... he worked as a community organizer!"

VP nominee Sarah Palin: "I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a ‘community organizer,’ except that you have actual responsibilities.”

Regardless of whether you are an Obama, McCain, McKinney, or Barr supporter, these comments denegrate important contributions made by thousands of (mostly) young women and men during the past 70 years, in both urban AND rural America. To say the very least, if not for the work of community organizers, redlining would still be official bank policy and the Bronx would still be burning. And what about empowering low income and working class people to stand up and fight for their neighborhoods, take pride in their communities, and make REAL changes in our society? Is this a job without responsibilities? Indeed it is a job that is difficult to perform properly, requires long hard hours, is often thankless and pays very little! Certainly for the millions of Americans who have benefitted from the work done by community organizers (myself and the other 1.4 million Bronx residents) it is nothing to laugh at.

I may be over-reacting, but I take these insults very personally (and I don't even qualify as a pure organizer). Sure, these comments are made for calculated political gain during a campaign, and I expect no better from the former NYC mayor. But to hear it over and over again on national TV (PBS no less!) without any counterpoint just made my blood boil.

Has any other profession been repeatedly ridiculed like this at a political convention before? Could you imagine if this was said about YOUR LIFE'S WORK to millions of viewers with no rebuttal?

Update: David Gonzalez of the New York Times has posted a column, Bronx Organizers React to G.O.P. Punchlines, featuring the work of two past local community organizers still active in the neighborhoods.

2nd Update: A new site has sprung in response to these attacks on organizers, and the initial post (also available on the Indypendent) features west Bronx organizer Jackie del Valle of New Settlement Apartments/CASA!

Community organizers across America, taken aback by a series of attacks from Republican leaders at the GOP convention in St. Paul, came together today to defend their work organizing Americans who have been left behind by unemployment, lack of health insurance and the national housing crisis. The organizers demanded an apology from Alaska Governor Sarah Palin for her statement that community organizers have no “actual responsibilities” and launched a web site, http://organizersfightback.wordpress.com/, to defend themselves against Republican attacks.

Also, this entry on the Huffington Post features the Center for Community Change's official response to the remarks.

Final Votes for Rudy?

Rudy Giuliani had already dropped out of the presidential race, but some New Yorkers voted for him anyway on Tuesday. Might they be his last votes as a candidate for public office?

Rudy's 1999 visit to Norwood in the Bronx

Photo from 1999 Norwood News article

In 1999, Rudy Giuliani visited PS 20 in Norwood. His performance at that Town Hall meeting in a way encapsulates the entirety of his mayoralty. Anyway, here's a look back.

News Roundup for July 23

A report released Friday by watchdog group Good Jobs New York reveals that taxpayers will be subsidizing the new Yankee Stadium by $100 million more than originally reported. WNYC looks at the influence of former and current elected officials on the controversial project's approval, including Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, Assemblyman and Democratic County Chair Roberto Ramirez, and Bronx political operative Stanley Schlein. Read the full report here.

Officials declared that the Bronx is making a comeback at the groundbreaking for the Metro North station at Yankee Stadium, the Post reports.

And today's Post talks about the Bronx's construction boom, with an estimated $965 million invested in new developments this year.

The Bronx Times explains the dispute between First Tee of Metropolitan New York and the Parks Department. First Tee, which runs the Mosholu Golf Course, was reimbursed last year for revenue it expected to lose due to the filtration plant construction on the site. Now the city says First Tee underreported its revenue.

The Daily News features two stories about schools in the Evander Childs building on East Gunhill Road. Students from the High School of Computers and Technology are pairing up with Bronxwood Nursing Home to set up a computer lab for the seniors, and students from the Bronx Lab School area headed to China and will blog about their experiences there.

The Return of Car-Free Sundays

This great outdoor community-building event on the Grand Concourse was axed early in the Giuliani administration. A coalition of groups has revived it with the support of Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion. And though it's now just from 170th to Mt. Eden, it includes a variety of health and fitness programs for kids and adults.

Updates ...

Jim Dwyer adds his two cents to Wayne Barrett's Village Voice piece on the meaning of the Yankees World Series rings former mayor Rudy Giuliani scored.

And Juan Gonzalez weighs in on the controversy concerning the new 14-hour Ken Burns documentary on World War II set to air on PBS this fall. Gonzalez looks at Burns' prior work on his epic 'Jazz' and 'Baseball' documentaries and quotes a New School music professor who calls Burns "a serial eraser of Latinos."