Barack Obama, Community Organizer

The Los Angeles Times recently published an article about an event in Barack Obama’s career as a community organizer in Chicago in the 1980’s.

The story focuses on a camaign that Obama organized with residents of the Altgeld Homes public housing project. Obama organized a trip downtown with residents to confront public housing officials about asbestos in apartments. In addition, there was a fractious public meeting with officials at the housing project.

The coverage is negative, implying that in his memoir
“Dreams From My Father” Obama exaggerated his role in the campaign and did not give sufficient credit to resident leaders working on the issue.

Obama’s campaign has issued a point-by-point rebuttal of the article. In the midst of a Presidential campaign, candidates are forced to respond immediately to bad news with massive force. The effect is overkill, but understandable.

The key point in my mind, having read both the memoir and the article, is that the LAT reporter has no clue about the purpose of either community organizing or memoir.

A community organizer works with the residents of the community, providing the research, strategic planning and encouragement that will allow disenfranchised people to speak for themselves and advocate for the improvements that will change their lives. The article does note that Obama stayed out of the limelight and let the residents have their say. He did his job and did it well, as many residents he worked with relate that he was quite inspiring.

The article faults Obama for giving short shrift to the efforts of one resident, a woman who had worked on this issue for many years. However, organizing is by definition not a solo game. People without money and influence have only one weapon, numbers. While the resident had done admirable work documenting the problem, no real progress had been made in dealing with the problem. It took an organized group of people jamming into a downtown office unannounced and a raucous 500+ person meeting at the housing project to get the Housing Authority to move on the issue.

Any criticisms about Obama focusing on his feelings and ideas about the campaign in his memoir are just flat out crazy. Is not a memoir about personal reflection? These events educated Obama, both about his abilities to influence and direct people and the power organized people have to influence entrenched power.

The section in Obama’s memoir on his time in Chicago before law school is the longest part of the book. During this time, Obama learned about the hopes and dreams of grassroots people and the power of community organizing. It is a major reason many people believe he can be more than just another gladhanding pol, and it is why I believe in Barack Obama.

Blog Love And Loss

A link to one of my Springteen posts was put up on a forum over at Backstreets–THE Bruce web site. Since that time, my traffic has ballooned 10X my normal rate. Welcome, Tramps!

The post was about my concern about Bruce’s ad for Fender guitars and my overall squeamishness of rock commercialization.

While I have been basking in the hits from Bruce fans, I did notice that one of my favorite daily blog reads removed my site from their blogroll. We’d commented on a couple of each other’s posts, sent an e-mail or two. I noticed a few referrrals from that site. Now I’m gone. Oh well, the web works in mysterious ways I guess. (I have taken their site down, too. I know, it’s childish, but it made me feel a little better.)

Innocents Abroad

I woke up with a strange phrase in my head this morning. “A decontextualized world.” I don’t even know if decontextualized is a word. The thought sprang from my evening spent watching my new Saturday Night Live box set, the entire first season 1975-76. I grew up watching the show and flew out to buy this set purely out of nostalgia.

The first catch-phrase from the show to catch on was “Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead” I always thought it was a riot, the sing-songy announcer voice spewing the obvious, a demented critique of the meaninglessness of most TV news.

About ten years after the start of SNL, I had the opportunity to travel to Spain and one of my few non-beach related goals was to bring back some sort of Franco memento. In a town square in Palma de Mallorca I happened across a souvenir stand vendor with loads of Franco stuff laid out on a table. I walked up to snatch my prize when I froze, located right next to the Franco souvenirs was a whole load of Nazi paraphernalia.

Of course, I knew that Franco was a fascist and an ally of the Third Reich. But my SNL fandom had seemingly wiped away all the reality and left only a tousled Chevy Chase smirking at the camera. I had come face-to-face with another human being who was openly promoting The Final Solution. I couldn’t run fast enough back to the beach.

After talking with some Spaniards later in the evening, I learned the true extent of Franco’s effect on the nation, the joy most felt at his death and the heroism of King Juan Carlos (who stared down a military insurrection when he officially relinquished control of the government to democratically elected officials.)

But how many of my fellow Americans thought only of Franco, if they even knew of his existence, as an SNL catch-phrase? And when I heard the catch phrase again last night, I woke up this morning with the notion that a large part of America’s problems stems from our almost total lack of understanding about the subtleties of other cultures and other nations’ histories.

Should we even be surprised that many Congressmen, most of whom voted to send American troops to war in Iraq, can’t even pass the simplest quiz about the differences between Shiite and Sunni Muslims? The head of the House Intelligence Committee Silvestre Reyes (D-TX) didn’t even know which side Al Quaeda is on (he said a little of both which I’m sure came as a surprise to the 100% Sunni group.)

Yeah, Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead and we’re still pretty clueless.

R.I.P. Chief Illiniwek, At Last!

Chief Illiniwek is dead! The hateful, racist mascot of the University of Illinois will dance his final frat-boy approximation of Native American culture on Wednesday–the final home basketball game of the year.

As King Kauffman points out in his Salon.com sports column, the decision was not done out of respect for Native Americans, but because the NCAA has forbidden universities that use Native American imagery for its sports teams to host NCAA post-season events. They hit ‘em in the wallet and they fell.

A win’s, a win.

Still Reading In The Street

I have always been a reader. Going with with my mom (a voracious reader) to the library on summer days is one of the fondest memories of my childhood. I was the kid that snuck the flashlight under the covers so I could read after lights out.

Something has happened, I’m struck by how little I read for pleasure these days. I read a lot at work, but my time is spent on organizations’ web sites, academic articles and governmental reports. I spend time on the web at home too, on this site and other blogs and such. I can spend an entire evening on Wikipedia following up on old rock bands.

I have been successful at reducing my intake of mindless TV shows, but that added time has been taken up by household chores and actual human interaction with my family. I need to somehow find a way to dedicate some time to the growing stack of books that I have accumulated and not found the time to get around to reading.

Call this the “Still Reading In The Street” project. The following 20 books have been sitting around for longer than I care to admit. Over the next 6 months my goal is to read each book and then post a short review of the book. My tastes run toward non-fiction, but there are a couple of serious fiction works in there.

“The 9/11 Commission Report” Authorized Edition
“The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay” Michael Chabon
“The Audacity of Hope” Barack Obama
“Becoming Justice Blackmun” Linda Greenhouse
“Building A Bridge To The 18th Century” Neil Postman
“Common Ground” J. Anthony Lukas
“The Corrections” Jonathan Franzen
“Fast Food Nation” Eric Schlosser
“The Fortress Of Solitude” Jonathan Lethem
“The Hidden Life Of Dogs” Elizabeth Marshall Thomas
“Marx For Beginners” Rius
“Mind Game” editors of Baseball Prospectus
“Perfectly Legal” David Cay Johnston
“A Problem From Hell” Samantha Power
“Reading Lolita In Tehran” Azar Nafisi
“The Road To Wigan Pier” George Orwell
“Tales Of the Tatras” K.P.Tetmajer
“Three Men In A Room” Seymour Lachman
“The Tipping Point” Malcolm Gladwell
“What Are People For?” Wendell Berry

The Post Standard Must Be Freakin’ Kidding Me

Boy did the Sunday Opinion section set off a tidal wave of ranting, swearing and pillow-throwing in my household.

First is an article chastising residents of this area for “defensive pessimism” by S.U. Chancellor Nancy Cantor then an editorial praising the “breakthrough” in negotiations between the city and county on negotiations for the County’s sewage treatment plant projects.

For the past five years, Mayor Driscoll was correct when he advocated for our city by pointing out the “antiquated technology” of partially treated sewage overflow, the idiotic idea of putting a sewage plant in Syracuse’s hottest neighborhood and the fact that the Midland plant is still “bad for people, families, neighborhoods, bad for the environment and bad for the future.”

Driscoll sold us out because he cares more about private development and the production of parking spaces than he does for neighborhood residents.

So my question for Chancellor Cantor: how the hell else do you expect us to relate to the corrupt pawns of private enterprise that represent our region other than with defensive pessimism? Don’t expect anything and you wont get your hopes dashed. There are no plans for our community, there are no concerns for environment, there is no humanity–just a healthy regard for the balance sheet.

Bruce Springsteen To Play NY State Fair

Dan O’Hara, The new director of the Fair, dreams big!

My Street In Winter

My Street In Winter

Originally uploaded by Phil At Sun.

Remember those 60 degree+ December days a couple of months ago? THIS is

more like it.

Spring training begins this weekend, real life is just around the corner.

Matt Driscoll Sells Us Out–Again

It’s getting to be routine, Matt Driscoll selling out the interests of Syracuse neighborhoods to make nice with the business interests and County Executive Pirro: you know, the folks that really run this town.

Driscoll sold us out again. The headline in today’s paper is: Syracuse,county ink sweeping agreement. The city will drop its appeal of the County’s eminent domain seizure of land for the Midland Ave. sewage treatment plant and agree not to bring any new lawsuits. In return, the County will be allowed to build a sewage plant in Armory Square and finish the plant on Midland Ave. The city gets some money for development in three neighborhoods surrounding the plants.

Reading between the lines, the city was especially keen on the $4 million that the County will pour into two private development projects in Armory Square area–developments that promise to create hundreds of parking spaces in parking-starved downtown Syracuse.

So, what have we lost?

1) Residents and businesses near the plants on Midland and Armory Square will still see sewage dumped into Onondaga Creek. The stormwater/sewage mix will allegedly be treated to eliminate 85% of the sewage , but will also now contain toxic chlorine.

2) The courts will not issue an opinion on the County’s asserted right to seize land under eminent domain from another governmental entity. Batten down the hatches, the County can take anything it wants from ANYONE!

Well, we got screwed by Matt on Valentine’s Day–and he didn’t even have the courtesy to give us any chocolate!

New Yorkers Love The Steamroller

Steamroller

Originally uploaded by Phil At Sun.

According to a Quinnipiac College poll, New Yorkers approve of Gov. Spitzer’s steamroller approach to relations with the state legislature, in fact they approve by a 2 to 1 margin.

While the press may debate whether Spitzer’s approach is“brilliant or just nuts” I believe that this is just the right tack for Spitzer to take. The governor gave them a chance to work together on reform, and on its very first challenge, selection of a new comptroller, the legislature has proven itself unwilling to shed itself of its dysfunction.

Spitzer cannot be seen as a partner with these bozos if there is any chance for him to bring real change to Albany. Spitzer must be confrontational and bring the battle to a town used to “get along, go along” for far too long.