My Friends,
I know that you want to honor the service of John McCain and you are proud that Sarah Palin delivered the Party line so well. In any other time it would be just as the media says, “game on”. But not this time. This time there is a movement afoot and that is the power of an organizer.
Community organizer is perhaps the highest form of service in our nation. The best and brightest have been drawn to this position motivated by the same values that produce war heroes. Any organizer could easily utilize their talents to simply make money or achieve success, but they identify with the community as a whole.
Organizers look for opportunities to heal communities by creating opportunity where little exists. There is a natural link between organizing and politics, where politics is the business of the community. Barack Obama is a master organizer.
Master organizers possess a unique and highly evolved set of talents and abilities. First of all they are visionaries. This does not mean that they are dreamers or even optimists; it simply means that they can see into the future with clarity and, as a result, can chart a better course than those of more limited vision.
It is easier for organizers to choose between good and better--a quality we refer to as judgment. Intelligence is a given, it is required for work at the street level. Effectiveness at the grassroots level requires the most sophisticated analysis and the ability to process innumerable variables without loosing focus.
Finally there is leadership. Leadership requires confidence in the ability of the community to follow in a direction that is optimal based on benefit to the group as well as the individuals.
Most often we do not know the names of great organizers because they tend to stand behind community leaders that they train and develop. In rare instances organizers are globally recognized: Gandhi, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Wangari Mathai, all of whom received international recognition for their work as organizers. There have been others. The late Rev. James Orange and Earl Shinhoster are two names that resonate from South Georgia to South Africa in labor and civil rights. These two community organizers paved the way for Barack Obama. Many others remain nameless like so many war heroes.
What distinguishes organizers is that in a real way they wage peace and prosperity with success defined in terms of the common good. Sometimes their battles are more difficult to win than wars on foreign soil, but no less worthy.
Organizers must be educated and enlightened. They must possess an active faith that is used to bring about change. Organizers understand that we must each manifest the change we seek. Master organizers produce great change by expanding their capacity to embrace the community as a whole and, like all great men of faith, show others how to believe.
Make no mistake, all who enter this honored field stand fearlessly on faith. In the long run organizers can never be defeated. In the words of Dr. King, “the arch of the moral universe is long but it bends towards justice.” Barack Obama has already won.
By Felicia M. Davis
Proud Community Organizer - Atlanta, GA
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