Organized Communities
“Have you ever wondered why Republicans are so interested in encouraging people to volunteer in the communities? it’s because volunteers work for no pay. Republicans have been trying to get people to work for no pay for a long time.” ~ Geoge Carlin (”Brain Droppings”, 1997)
Leadership: (noun) the action of leading a group of people or an organization.
• the state or position of being a leader : the leadership of the party.
• [treated as sing. or pl. ] the leaders of an organization, country, etc. : a change of leadership had become desirable.
• the ability to lead skillfully : they hailed DuPont’s courage and leadership.[Oxford American dictionary]
Let’s break this down, shall we. A community organizer, as the name implies, is someone with the determination and ability to get groups of people to do things they otherwise would not do — for free — without the authority to order them or offer pay or any incentive than the doing good for their community, improving the lot of their fellow man. They do this through sheer persuasive appeal.
Someone with a vision for the future who can inspire enough people to set aside their selfish lives long enough to make a difference, together.
A community organizer does not hire people, fire people, use threats, coercion or tax-incentives. They are required to be creative in what they accomplish and how they get there. Their skill-set includes something beyond being a mere technocrat, more than simply minding the store and avoiding corruption, but qualities that appeal to our better angels resulting in a more productive and beneficial society that increases everyone’s quality of life.
In short, any ambitious hockey mom can tick off line-items in a budget, learn to deliver a well written speech and cram enough facts and figures in her pretty little head not to make a fool of herself in public. It takes a leader to change the world.
Fact is, if you have to explain a joke — as Carlin himself would have testified — it probably wasn’t all that funny to begin with. Maybe you just ought to let this one go.
September 7th, 2008 at 3:36 pm
There is no such thing as society: there are individual men and women, and there are families.
Margaret Thatcher
Not only are the Republicans against community organizers, they are also against the very concept of community.
Don’t forget it.