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This was originally posted at Meredith’s Facebook account. There is a volley of great comments that follow her thoughts there, too. Check it out. This post says many of the things I believe as well, but could not have put as well as she has put it here.  - Bryan

How can someone claim to be a Washington outsider and be so ignorant and disrespectful of the work of community organizers? So she wants to take shots at Obama–that is certainly her right and she has every reason to do so. But to be so disrespectful of community organizers speaks volumes about how she feels about participatory government and citizen action in a democracy. Community organizers are American citizens who fought, and still fight, to get almost every freedom we have wrestled from the good ole boy network( to use her phrasing). To take jabs at community organizers, either directly or indirectly, and to suggest that citizens who work for change deserve little to no respect for the work to which they dedicate their lives, embodies the epitome of the good ole boy network that gives little respect to grassroots organizers working to making this world a more just place.

It bothers me that she said it; it bothers me even more that I don’t think this will even become a talking point in the main stream media’s discussion of her speech (I hope I am wrong here). I feel that part of this is because our history education in this country is so horribly lacking that many people are unaware of the role of community organizers in fighting for democracy. We don’t get taught that women who fought for the right to vote were community organizers; union workers=community organizers. Civil Rights Movement=community organizers. Black Power Movement= community organizers. Southern farm workers rallying against sharecropping=community organizers. National Arts Legislation that brought us the NEA=community organizers. And the list goes on. 

Community organizers ARE regular American people who take on the injustice of the system.

I mean sure she was mean and took cheap shots and did not even mention the recent ice shelf melting that should have been discussed as a national security issue (?!?!), but to deride the work of community organizers seems to cut to the core of a bigger underlying problem: she appears to not respect citizens ability to organize, fight injustice, and work for change. It’s unacceptable.

The other thing that bothers me this part of her speech is that I think it will play very nicely into the hands of folks who think Obama is all talk and no action.
I understand people don’t like Obama and a lot of people say he is just a bunch of flowering speeches. I can understand that.

But, while I think while Obama’s speeches are indeed beautiful, they are not mere words. They are calls to action for the ordinary citizen to get up and DO something. Not just by voting for Obama. That’s not the point. The point is to put hope into action—- for each and every person to work for change. This is only idealism if people refuse to get up and fight for what’s right and be a part of the solution. 

I don’t understand how the argument gets made over and over that Obama wants government to fix things. HIs speeches are loaded with calls for each and every citizen to do their part to make this world a better place. How such thinking ever went from being considered common sense to be considered idealism is hard for me to understand. But such thinking does look like idealism if we think the everyday citizen is powerless to do anything.

Palin took a shot at the work people do at the grassroots. That’s unacceptable for ANYONE who says they care about democracy. It’s especially problematic when that same person claims to be a Washington outsider and a reformer.

People have got to stand up and say that this tactic of disrespecting community work is unacceptable.

Anyone else feel this way? If so, think we need to make sure we make our voices heard in a polite and direct way.

I want to live in a world where our government encourages its citizens to be an active part of public policy. Cheesy as it sounds, the world we want to see has to begin with ourselves. Palin disrespected my fundamental rights as a citizen. And she did so by using towns like my own as a pawn. I can’t stand for that.

This post was submitted by Meredith.

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