God forbid average people actually empower themselves

After I heard Rudy Giuliani introduce Sarah Palin last night and listened to her acceptance speech, I literally felt sick to my stomach and so agitated that I couldn't sleep.

I am not going to write about Gov. Palin's experience relative to Senator Obama's, her daughter's pregnancy, her ability to shoot a moose or the many half-truths and straight-up lies in her speech. (I encourage everyone to read this AP article about the latter). Instead, I want to express my utter disgust with how Giuliani and Palin mocked community organizers and how the buffoons in the audience lapped it up.

Community organizers, who can be paid professionals or volunteer citizens, work to empower communities to solve a local problem by building a base of concerned people, mobilizing these community members to act, and developing leadership from and relationships among the people involved.

Rudy Giuliani's schtick in his speech was to compare McCain and Obama as if we were just potential employers looking at their resumes "objectively." After going through McCain's qualifications, Giuliani started in on Obama's experience as a community organizer, with a note of derision in his voice. He then stopped to giggle, and said "maybe this is the first problem on the resume," while the crowd started laughing and chanting "Zero! Zero!"

So, let me get this straight. The day after the Republican National Convention focused on the theme of "service," Giuliani mocks people who have opted to devote their time and even their careers to helping other people improve their communities. Nice. And Barack Obama is the elitist?

This set the tone for Sarah Palin's later reference to Obama's experience as a community organizer. She said, with notable sarcasm, "I guess a small town mayor is sort of like a 'community organizer,' except that you have actual responsibilities." (Yeah, like trying to decide which books to ban from the local public library).

This is where Sarah Palin lost every ounce of my respect. Truth be told, I think she is a right-wing nutball, but I can respect her right to have a different opinion than mine, even though I think it is wrong. I can respect that she is a successful, articulate woman who made a career by engaging and listening to her community at PTA and city council meetings. But last night, she (articulately) regurgitated a speech, written by a former Bush speechwriter, that summarily dismissed the value of this community-level engagement and shat upon the very people she once represented in her small town, people who may not have the responsibilities of a mayor or governor but who feel every bit responsible for the health and quality of life of their families and neighbors.

The fat cats in the audience hooted and hollered at the idea of a "community organizer" because they know, they KNOW, that community organizers in the spirit of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the late Senator Paul Wellstone challenge the status quo. Judged by their belly laughs, those guys in the big cowboy hats like the status quo. A lot. Jon Stewart summarized the collective sentiment best: "To everyone out there trying to make a difference in their communities, FUCK YOU. You are bunch of asses!"

Flashback of Irony: In his 1989 inaugural address, President George H.W. Bush reminded Americans of his call for "a thousand points of light," community organizations that "spread like stars throughout the Nation, doing good."

Sigh.