Funny story. Do you remember when Sarah Palin spoke at the Republican National Convention, and she attempted to attack Barack Obama by mocking his history as a community organizer? She said something along the lines of, “Community organizer? What's that? I'm the Governor, it's like being a community organizer with actual responsibilities.”
Now, I have several friends who are community organizers who were quite upset about this slur against them. I understood their anger, but I didn't share it, because I figured, hey, this is the enemy, of course she's going to say something stupid like that.
A few days later, I was talking with my mom. My parents are both moderate liberals, so I expected them to be skeptical of Palin, but what my mom said really struck me.
“All those years I spent helping with Cub Scouts and this is the thanks I get from her?” I think it was quite illuminating. While my ghetto of left-wing friends thought that Palin was targeting us, millions of people like my mom who volunteer in scouting groups, Red Hat societies, soup kitchens, church groups and school bake sales, felt that they were being mocked for caring about their community. As my mom said, “without community organizers, where would we be?”
