Afro-Netizen supports "Day of Blogging for Justice: Community Organizers"

It is a bit ironic that Sarah Palin and other Republicans of her ilk have such a low opinion of community organizers given that the modern right-wing evangelical movement is a perfect example of well-executed community organizing.

But perhaps the reality is not that folks are organizing, but who is organizing whom and for what purpose, as the sage folks at The SuperSpade comment on here.

My four grandparents were community organizers, as were a few other ancestors of mine from previous generations. In fact, some of the greatest community organizers in the first half of the 19th Century in America were "evangelicals".

Maybe you've heard of these Ante-bellum Era folks: Abolitionists?!?

Many of them were devout Christians and patriotic Americans who fought to realize the promise of their native land for all Americans (at least that enlightened subset who supported women's rights).

They were folks who had the good sense to hold fast to the Gospel and humanitarian values over two-dimensional nationality and visceral hatred, and who had the humility and moral courage to hold their country to its own professed standards as outlined in the Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights so that they could one day experience first-hand what it felt to be really proud of their own country.

My ancestor, Rev. Amos Noë Freeman (1809 - 1893), was a Presbyterian minister, educator and abolitionist who was born a free person of color in Rahway, New Jersey in 1809 of obscure origin. In his speeches in the 1830's he said much the same things that Rev. Jeremiah Wright (actually) said from the pulpit, preaching social justice long before the emergence of liberation theology.

He was a community organizer after whom my wife and I name our first son. He was neither a governor, a senator nor the heir of an alcohol distributorship, but he spent his whole adult life working for and with those who did not yet know freedom.

He was a progressive in the times in which he lived. And he was almost certainly a registered Republican (in Brooklyn, New York where he and his family lived).

How things change and how things stay the same.

Comments

[Freager]

Spot on, brother. Spot on.

[M Taylor]

you hit on the head "the reality is not that folks are organizing, but who is organizing whom and for what purpose"

[regina]

Great post!
I think the organizers of today's blogging effort should be applauded for getting the word out about this Blogging Day For Justice! I am honored to join the ranks of other Community workers to let our voice be heard! I am proud to be a Community Worker and Community Organizer!
Blessings!