ICCI Mentioned in NY Times Article about Community Organizers
Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement
Pasted below is an op-ed from Sunday's New York Times that features Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement. It was written by Deepak Bhargava, the executive director of the Center for Community Change. It addresses the recent national debate about what community organizers do and the responsibilities they have in terms of organizing everyday people to unite and stand up for what's right. It describes how this experience is important for a future president. This is significant visibility for community organizations and the work of community organizers.
September 14, 2008
NY Times Op-Ed Contributors
Are We Experienced?
By STEPHEN R. GRAY, DEEPAK BHARGAVA, LINCOLN D. CHAFEE, LIZ KRUEGER, TONY KNOWLES, GEORGE B. FITCH, LEO THORSNESS, NOAH FELDMAN and MARY KARR
Experience. In the 2008 presidential election, it's been a campaign slogan, a debating point and a subject of endless column inches and talk show hours. John McCain and Barack Obama, Joe Biden and Sarah Palin - whose life experiences offer the best preparation for the presidency and vice presidency? Does it help to be a naval aviator? A community organizer? A senator? A small-town mayor? Does one trump another? To answer those questions, the Op-Ed page asked people whose résumés overlap with the candidates' to explain how the qualities they've needed to draw on for their jobs and their lives would come in handy in the White House.
Organizing Principles
By DEEPAK BHARGAVA
What do community organizers do? Well, consider Hugh Espey, an organizer with Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement. On a typical day, he might help low-income residents of Des Moines organize to keep a neighborhood grocery store open or work with family farmers to persuade a state agency to deny a permit for a proposed factory farm, or meet with Mexican families in Marshalltown about ways to advance immigration reform. He brings various constituencies together to find common ground, build relationships and support each other's causes.
It's important to emphasize that organizers like Mr. Espey aren't there to solve people's problems for them - they're there to teach people how to help themselves: to learn how to speak in public, to run a meeting, or to hold their own in a negotiation with an employer, a landlord or a policy maker. Organizers teach people to work with - and challenge - politicians of every party.
How do they do this? Every effective organizer I've ever known has had this talent: the ability to listen to people, rather than spin them or demonize them. Organizers don't seek personal glory, they help other people lead and be recognized for that leadership.
Any president would do well to adhere to the community values, often rooted in religious faith, that inspire organizers. They believe that problems are best solved through cooperation, that every person is part of the American family and that no individual can do well while others are suffering. A president familiar with community organizing would seek out diverse views to formulate policy rooted in the realities of ordinary life. He would know how to build coalitions to overcome the entrenched interests that block progress.
Most important, a president with community organizing skills might engage ordinary Americans in the practice of democracy every day - not just at election time.
- DEEPAK BHARGAVA, the executive director of the Center for Community Change in Washington
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Monday, September 15
ICCI Mentioned in NY Times Article about Community Organizers
by
Sam Garchik
on Mon 15 Sep 2008 10:11 AM CDT
Wednesday, September 10
Pro-Factory Farm EPC Member Resigns
by
Sam Garchik
on Wed 10 Sep 2008 09:12 PM CDT
Pro-Factory Farm EPC Member Resigns
By ICCI Iowa CCI members urge Governor Culver to appoint replacement who will protect environment Wednesday, September 10, 2008, Des Moines, Iowa - Ralph Klemme, an Environmental Protection Commissioner who consistently voted against protecting the environment and in favor of the factory farm industry, resigned last week from the Environmental Protection Commission, a nine-citizen DNR oversight panel appointed by the Governor. Klemme's resignation followed landmark votes by the Commission in August to deny two 7,440-head hog factories in Dallas County, which he voted to approve. Klemme was recently quoted as saying he "didn't like the direction the commission was going." Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement members see this resignation as a victory and an opportunity for Governor Culver to appoint a new Commissioner to replace Klemme who will stand up for protecting Iowa's environment. "Because of his poor voting record, I am pleased to hear of Ralph Klemme's resignation. Now we need to make sure Governor Culver will appoint someone who will stand up for clean air and clean water," said CCI member Kevin Shilling from Greenfield. A former state legislator from LeMars, Klemme voted in May to approve a large hog factory in Greene County that was overwhelmingly opposed by local residents, county officials and local business leaders. He also voted against a common-sense rule that would have limited the amount of manure that factory farm owners could be spread on soybean crops. Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement is a group of everyday people who talk, act and get things done on issues that matter most. Please contact the CCI office (phone: 515-282-0484, email: iowacci@iowacci.org) if you have factory farms moving into your area that your community does not want. |
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