Just A Few Of The Community Organizers Sarah Palin Mocked

Thanks to many people out there, this ad is going up on the air for all to see:

Obama Responds To Palin's Derision Of Community Organizers

Sarah Palin proved she was a disgrace many times over two days ago. One particular theme that stuck out was the attack on Obama being a community organizer and community organizers in general. People were appalled (unless you had huge partisan blinders on in the Xcel Center) that people who try to make a difference in their neighborhood would be bashed in that manner. Well Obama wasn't about to take that one lying down. First he raised $10 million for his campaign based on her overall hate and vitriol, then he made a statement that made all organizers proud and showed his supporters that he is ready to fight against the GOP machine of fear and manipulation.

From DailyKos:

q. How is community organizing relevant for the presidency?

Obama:
This is very curious. They havent talked about the fact that I was a civil rights lawyer, or taught constitutional law, my work in the state legislature, or US Senate, they focused on this 3 years where i worked as a community organizer, right out of college. As if im make the leap from 2-3 years out of college to the presidency.

I would argue that doing work in the community, try and create jobs, rejuvenate the communities that have fallen on hard times, bring people together, setup job training programs in areas that have been hard hit where the steel plants have closed. That's relevant only in understanding where im coming from, who i believe in, who im fighting for and why im in this race.

The question I have for them is
Why would that kind of work be ridiculous?
WHO ARE THEY FIGHTING FOR? (emphasis mine)
What are they advocating for?

Do they think that the lives of those folks struggling each and every day, that working with to try and improve their lives is somehow not relevant to the presidency.

I think that is part of the problem, that they are out of touch and dont get it because they havent spent much time working on behalf of those folks.

Palin and her brand new sycophants play right into what Obama has been saying about them. The GOP is out of touch and do not understand the problems that so many Americans have to deal with, especially after eight years of George Bush. Barack Obama is willing to fight for those that are struggling under the economic conditions we are facing. McCain thinks that the fundamentals of our economy are strong, but it just shows how clueless he is. Community organizers have been fighting aginst Bush's policies since the turn of the century and for many, many years before that as well. If they want to attack Americans that work to make a difference in their community, then by all means, go for it. Meanwhile, those organizers will be doing all that they can to elect Barack Obama.

NY Organizers Demand Apology From Palin

It has already been touched on before that Palin offended many different groups of people last night in her speech. Specifically, she belittled Obama by saying that he was a community organizer, as to elevate her standing as a Mayor of a small exurban town in Alaska. The attempt got a good round of applause from the delgates but outside of the hall people were shocked at what they heard.

One of those groups in her target area was obviously community organizers themselves, men and women that work hard in their communities to make them better places to live and work in. Well rather than let Palin attack and sit down, organizers are beginning to do what they do best, organize....against Palin.

From Organizers Fight Back:

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.

“Community organizers work in neighborhoods that have been hit hardest by the failing economy,” said John Raskin, founder of Community Organizers of America and a community organizer on the West Side of Manhattan. “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. Maybe if everyone had more houses than they can count, we wouldn’t need community organizers. But I work with people who are getting evicted from their only home. If John McCain and the Republicans understood that, maybe they wouldn’t be so quick to make fun of community organizers like me.”

Though many people are unfamiliar with community organizing, the job is both straightforward and vital: community organizers work with families who are struggling–because of low wages, poor health coverage, unaffordable housing, and other community problems–so that collectively, they can fix those problems and make government respond to their 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.

Not only are organizers getting involved in this, but our main man has realized the opportunity that Palin gave not only her base, but ours as well. In the middle of last night campaign manager Plouffe sent out an email to raise money because of her senseless attacks on organizers. Republicans may mock his credentials, but the people who do this hard work and the millions of people that benefit from it do not appreciate being laughed at. And they'll show it and sock it to them two months from today....on election day.

Message To Palin: Do Not Mock Community Organizers

Sarah Palin may have been trying to get the crowd riled up, but she insulted a lot of hardworking Americans when she mocked community organizers. She forgets that those are the people that make a difference in their neighborhood. She forgets that these men and women fight tirelessly for health care issues, economic issues and myriad ways to benefit the area in which they live.



And most importantly for Palin and McCain, community organizers are the ones that work the hardest to turn out the vote, whether it be for City Council or the Presidency.