Service Changes People’s Character

Why are community organizers important? What role do they play?
The chief thing they do is try to make democracy work. Democracy depends on people lifting their voice and being heard. There are people who have been rendered inarticulate by virtue of their situation... If you want to have anything to say about your situation, you need to gather with other people. You can't really do it alone. You need to learn certain skills that are important to public life, and that's the role of the community organizer. This stuff usually works in partnership with the government. Government initiatives tend to be faceless, bureaucratic and lack a personal touch. Local grassroots organizers are adding that personal touch to it, making sure communities are mobilizing for change.

Both of the candidates will be speaking next week at a forum hosted by Service Nation, an organization looking to promote community service among Americans. What would you like to see them saying?
I'd like to see John McCain saying, 'some people at my convention tried to make fun of community organizing and I disassociate myself with that.' I don't think that'll happen. I think service is something that changes people's character and contributes to solving problems. If it's coordinated with government initiatives and a very well-crafted public policy it can go a long way. One of the things Barack has put in his faith-based learning initiative is a call for intensive summer learning, so that children who are not getting enough by being in school normal weekdays need to be learning there in summer. It's going to be funded with a lot of faith-based initiatives and staffed by a lot of volunteers. And I know it sounds small, and maybe being a community organizer sounds pretty small-scale too, but it all adds up to big differences when it's done right.

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