Sen. Barak Obama...community organizer...political education

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[Jim Capraro]

Andy,
Some of us actually know all of the Chicago figures mentioned in the article.  I first met Barak in the mid 1980's, and first heard of him when his boss Jerry Kellman, told me about a phenominal young organizer who was planning on leaving to go to Harvard law school.  Even in those early years Barak looked like someone special.

Here is a link to another article in the Rolling Stone that talks about how Barak is using organizer skill & organizer training in his political campaign.  After reading it I was left with the thought that Barak is really creating a "new day" & "new way" for national electoral politics.
Jim Capraro


http://www.rollingstone.com/news/coverstory/19106326

[Andy Fraizer]

In the March 19, 2007 issue of The New Republic, Ryan Lizza writes about Sen. Obama's political education including extensive discussion of his time as a community organizer in Chicago.  Some of my friends in this great city may be able to add additional context to this story.  I'm anxious to hear your reactions.

You can read the article at
http://tinyurl.com/3c6bf9

The article says in part...

Not long after Obama arrived [in Chicago], he sat down for a cup of coffee in Hyde Park with a fellow organizer named Mike Kruglik. Obama's work focused on helping poor blacks on Chicago's South Side fight the city for things like job banks and asbestos removal. His teachers were schooled in a style of organizing devised by Saul Alinsky, the radical University of Chicago trained social scientist. At the heart of the Alinsky method is the concept of "agitation"--making someone angry enough about the rotten state of his life that he agrees to take action to change it; or, as Alinsky himself described the job, to "rub raw the sores of discontent."

The article goes on to discuss a 1995 Chicago Reader article where Sen. Obama articulates his view of the connections between mobilization and electoral office.

"What if a politician were to see his job as that of an organizer, as part teacher and part advocate, one who does not sell voters short but who educates them about the real choices before them? As an elected public official, for instance, I could bring church and community leaders together easier than I could as a community organizer or lawyer."

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