Thursday, September 4, 2008

Don't Swift Boat Our Community Organizers!

"I have actual responsibilities, said 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 wouldnt have so much responsibility.  Maybe working people would have an easier time in America today.  But thats not our reality, and they dont have to mock us while were trying to clean up their mess."
Today, I found a great new blog called Organizers Fight Back. Here, we see the truth that the Rethuglican fat cat elitists don't want us to see. They think they can mock Barack Obama for working to help the community as a young man, but we know better. We can't let them get away with their ugly smears.

In case you missed it, a slew of speakers at the GOP Convention last night tried to make "community organizer" into some dirty job that anyone would be ashamed of. Rudy Giuliani mocked Obama for having "problems with his resume", while Sarah Palin actually mocked organizers as "having no responsibilities". Maybe from their vantage points as ultra-rich oligarchs that don't know what it's like to live paycheck to paycheck, these Republicans don't think community organizers do anything important. But for the rest of us, we know better.

I have friends myself who have worked hard as community organizers. Through their blood, sweat, and 24/7 nonstop work, they've helped protect the environment, get more affordable housing built, improve our schools, and help workers get the living wage they deserve. I know better, so I refuse to allow these Republican attacks on grassroots local organizers go unchallenged.

We all know of Barack Obama and his work as a community organizer. He actually worked hard to bring about real change for the better in his community in Chicago. He worked to help out workers who lost their jobs at the steel mills. He worked hard to help working families get the affordable housing they deserve. And for Republicans like John McCain and Sarah Palin to mock that while they hide their own ugly truth of putting the wants of the powerful over the needs of the people, that's just outright despicable.

If the Republicans plan to make "community organizer" into some new veiled racist attack, we won't let them. Of the Republicans want to mock Barack Obama's record of service to the people, we won't let them. I've seen far too many ugly, disgusting right-wing attacks go unanswered in the past, so I refuse to stay silent as I see another "swift boat" style smear rear it's ghastly head. I hope you'll all join me.

Let's fight the smears. Let's help truth fight back. Let's stand up for community organizers, for real agents of change like Barack Obama, and let's take our country back from the lying GOP elitists!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Excellent post. We cannot allow the Rethuglicans to hijack virtue and attempt to smear it as undesirable. It's the same old Rove playbook.

Al Gore is smart: ridicule him for being out of touch.

John Kerry is a war hero: ridicule him as being a coward (while supporting a draft dodger and deferrment darling).

Barack Obama is a Harvard educated lawyer who could have worked at any high-powered lawfirm but chose to help out in his community: ridicule him for that.

No way can we let this continue.

Keep up the good fight.

Suzanne Fluhr said...

Here's a way to respond.

http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/community_organizers/?r_by=-1775468-DFNf_Rx&rc=paste

Post a Comment