There is nothing essentially wrong with power. Dr King once said it best:
Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice. Justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love. Martin Luther King, Jr., Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?, 1967.
Community Organizing at its core is about justice. Community Organizing brings the talents, resources, skills and knowledge of a community together to increase their collective power. When used correctly this collective power is used to transform lives, not just the lives of of a few but the lives of many. Organizing is different than advocacy . Its different than service work and its definitely different than mobilizing. It is using power to correct everything that stands against love.
So lets get started . If you can not honestly answer YES the following questions do not pass go, do not collect $200 and DO NOT start a project where organizing is critical to its success:
- Are you courageous? Are you able to work through your fear?
- Are you willing to take risk to achieve your goal?
- Do you value new voices? Do you create space for emerging leaders?
- Are you committed to change? Do you walk your talk?
- Do you believe in the people in your community?
At the heart of community organizing are inclusion, ownership, relationship building and leadership development.
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We spend money we don’t have on things we don’t need to create impressions that won’t last on people we don’t care about. ~Anonymous
Did you buy the house you currently have because you felt pressure to live in a certain neighborhood?
Did you ever buy clothes or a vacation that you knew was too exspensive but you did it because you did not want people to think less of you?
Did you buy the wrong car because you felt pressure to make an impression on your brother-in-law of your old college roommate?
Have you ever spent money on items because you did not want people to think less of you?
I have.
And I felt weak and ashamed that I could not stand up for myself and admit that I just did not have the money or even worst, I did really did not want what I purchased.
A few weeks back I wrote a blog post asking when is enough really enough….how much “stuff” do we as humans really need? The other side of that coin is how much stuff do we purchase and KNOW we can do without? Know that we did not need it, but buy it nevertheless. How many things do we have in our homes that as we were purchasing them they made our stomachs flop and our mouths dry up? It’s an interesting place to be in when you are with friends or family and you first notice that you have VERY different ideas on the definition of expensive . Even more importantly that you have very different definitions of what really adds value to your lives.
It’s hard to wake up and realize that you are different. That you have very different priorities from your loved ones. Very different wants and needs.
No one wants anyone they love to think less of them. And sadly many of of us in this country equate worth with income and things. The more stuff you have the more popular you are and well liked you may be. Some where along the line money and self-esteem made some kind of unholy pact that the majority of modern society took to be true. So how did I find myself in these horrible situations?
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