On Propeller.com there have been many reactions to this statement. Member k312121 writes: "I am a community organizer in a large city in San Antonio. To discredit me only made me laugh. I can do this job in my sleep and that is why I have a real job -- at a private university. Obama's use of this title is abusive and irrelevant."
A post "Community Organizers Demand Apology After Sarah Palin's Attack" from thinkprogress.org contains a number of quotes from community organizations unhappy with the nominee's statement. FTA: "The last thing we need is for Republican officials to mock us on television when we're trying to rebuild the neighborhoods they have destroyed. (Community Organizers of America)" In the Propeller discussion, member miklkit reminds us: "Please remember, Jesus was a Community Organizer and Pontius Pilate was a Governor".
The AP picked up the story and titled it "GOP criticism angers some community organizers". Says John Baumann, executive director of PICO National Network, "If people in office were doing their jobs, perhaps we wouldn't need community organizers".
The website "Stop. Think. Vote." has an article (located here on Propeller) that informs us that Candidate McCain, after Palin's remarks on 9/3, canceled a scheduled appearance at the Twin Cities Habitat For Humanity build site. Coincidence? You Tell Us!
The Nation has an article (located here), "Community Organizers Fight Back", which quotes Jacqueline del Valle, a community organizer in the Bronx, "If Mayor Giuliani and President Bush cared more about working people instead of just people who can hire high-powered lobbyists, maybe I wouldn't have so much responsibility. Maybe working people would have an easier time in America today. But that's not our reality, and they don't have to mock us while we're trying to clean up their mess."
Taking us away is "The Republican Hater's Ball", courtesy of YouTube. Kudos to The Nation for finding this and linking to it.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1. Palin is a joke. She hasn't the brains to do a good job of cleaning a toilet, much less hold a really important government job. Evidently, the people of Alaska elected her to be governor as a kind of huge gag. Palin preaches abstinance and is against contraceptives and choice, yet she can't get the point across in her own family. God forbid she get to be VP and then something happens to McBush. Our country would be screwed if a bimbo cheer leader like Palin ever got into a position that required a brain.
Posted at 9:36PM on Sep 5th 2008 by Stanley
2. In your blog, k312121, you tied O'Bama to the comment from Sarah Palin. Pralin is republican VP nominee under McCain, not O'Bama.
Posted at 5:07PM on Sep 5th 2008 by gt121978
3. Get a grip would you. They were not mocking you or anyone. They were comparing experience levels of the two candidates.
Posted at 11:44AM on Sep 7th 2008 by p.mcsweeney
4. Here's the real difference between this "small town mayor" and "community organizers," which include American volunteers around the world, military units in Iraq and Afghanistan, and many more. "Community organizers" make their community better, in however small a way, they don't screw up their "actual responsibilities" so bad that a professional city manager has to be brought in to clean up their $22 million deficit mess (that projects to a $900 billion deficit if Sarah Palin had been managing the US instead of a town of 7,000).
Now the Republicans are trying to say she wasn't mocking community organizers, she was mocking Barack Obama for talking about it because, after all, she doesn't talk about her stint on the "Watch for Wasilla" committee or the PTA. This only shows even more that they just don't get it. First of all, what's wrong with talking about, even bragging about community service? Not everyone does it. Second of all, if they can't see the difference between serving on some committee that meets twice a month and dedicating *three years* of your *life* to a job that pays only *$10K a year,* in *Chicago,* while all your pals are getting six figure jobs on Wall Street, they are truly clueless.
Me, I spent four years as a Peace Corps volunteer, making $170/month in West Africa, at a time when the job was more dangerous than serving in the military. If I ever run for public office, I hope that I will be able to talk about that experience and how it shaped me without some Republican with no concept of service tell me to shut up because, after all, they're not going around talking about the school bake sale they helped out with.
Posted at 11:44AM on Sep 7th 2008 by Noah
5. Will someone please tell Sarah Palin that:
JESUS WAS A COMMUNITY ORGANIZER
Posted at 12:10AM on Sep 7th 2008 by Kwaayesnama
6. COMMUNITY ORGANIZERS---YEA! THERE IS A CATCH PHRASE.
OKAY! LETS LOOK AT THEIR DEFINING DUTIES.----PUT COMMUNITY RESIDENTS BACK TO WORK? AH NO!-------HELP GET RID OF COMMUNITY CRIME---AH NO!---------MAKE A POSITIVE IMPAQCT ON PARENTS ACCEPTING THEIR RESPONSIBILITY TO MAKE SURE THEIR CHILDREN ARE IN SCHOOL---AH NO!
OKAY!!!!! THE REAL COMMUNITY ORGANIZER-------START PROTEST WHICH IN MANY ARENAS END IN RIOTS AND HARM TO OTHERS-------HELP COMUNITY RESIDENTS FILL OUT THE PROPER PAPERWORK IN ORDER TO RECE3IVE AS MUCH FREE SOCIAL FREE0BEE'S AS POSSIBLE----FREE WELFARE, FOOD, HOSPITALIZATION, EDUCATION, HOUSING, MONEY-----YEA! BARACK WAS SURE A COMMUNITY ORGANIZER GO GETTER WHEN IT CAME TO SHOWING THE COMMUNITY HOW TO GET TAX FREE GOODS AND STILL NO ONE EVER WORKED. AMERICA----GOD I LOVE THIS COUNTRY.---AND ALL OF THE EXPERIENCE HE MUST HAS RECEIVED ON THE JOB---THE POSSIBILITY'S ARE STAGGERING---STUPID BUT NEVER THE LESS STAGGERING.
Posted at 4:11PM on Oct 21st 2008 by harrysstyle
7. Community organizers work with families who are struggling–because of low wages, poor health coverage, unaffordable housing, and other community problems–so that collectively, we can fix those problems and make our government respond to our day-to-day concerns. Organizers knock on doors, attend community meetings, visit churches and synagogues and mosques, and work with unions and civic groups and block associations to help ordinary people build power and counter the influence of self-interested insiders and highly paid lobbyists at all levels of government.
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Martina
Social Bookmarking Now
Posted at 10:51AM on Nov 11th 2008 by Martina
8. Has anyone noticed that there are FEMA camps being built here in the USA for large populations of people, what the hell is going on, I hear they are being bulit for us the people who do not agree with the New World Order and the North America Union passed and signed by who, Bush, and his buddies
Posted at 2:55PM on Nov 17th 2008 by mlb