GOP criticism angers community organizers

An item of interest. The GOP VP nominee apparently had some things to say about Obama's experience as a community organizer. So here's one piece that shows that this ridicule was unfounded:

Angry community organizers defended their work, and that of former organizer Barack Obama, as they fought back Thursday against a series of insulting remarks by speakers at the Republican National Convention.

Organizers described themselves as the antidote to big-money lobbyists who wield so much influence. They talked about helping powerless people join forces to demand better schools and safer streets, often by working through churches.

"If people in office were doing their jobs, perhaps we wouldn't need community organizers," said John Baumann, executive director of PICO National Network, whose name derives from "people improving communities through organizing."

"I don't like seeing the really hard work that goes on in really poor communities being demeaned by cheap politicians," said Joshua Hoyt, executive director of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights. "Community organizing is as American as democracy. It believes that ordinary people can do extraordinary things."

Obama, the Democratic presidential nominee, has often talked about his three years as a community organizer in Chicago. He uses it to demonstrate that he understands the problems of people losing their jobs and stuck in deteriorating neighborhoods.

On the same tack from ReedBiz:

Yeah, that Jane Addams was a funny gal. Who wouldn't laugh at a community organizer who spent her adult life feeding hungry, homeless children and fighting for social reform?

Founder of Hull House? Nobel Peace Prize winner? Please, enough with the jokes.
What's that you say? It's not funny.

You're right. Only someone with a sick sense of humor would deride activists who toil in Chicago's worse neighborhoods, dedicating time and effort to providing poor and disenfranchise citizens with a voice in the political and social process.

Someone with a warped view like Sarah Palin, the Republican Party's newly-crowned vice-presidential nominee. Or Rudy Giuliani, who lusted for the GOP's presidential nod, but instead settled for making a keynote speech Wednesday before the party hopefuls.

To be sure I may begrudge Obama on his lack of experience to take on the role of President of the United States. What I won't mock is his job as a community organizer. In fact the job itself (not sure I can call it a job, especially if you're not being paid for it) is a necessary one depending upon the problem or even how low a priority the problem itself actually is. If the politicians aren't willing to act on a particular program who else but the individual citizens.