That article was from The Nation so naturally it gives the most flattering account possible. I linked to it because it had some of the names. If you can get BHO’s book, it has more detailed information. I came away with the impression that the people he was organizing taught him how to organize.
That the people taught him to organize would seem to mean that he is willing to listen, which is good. The problem that I see is that is opposite of what I observe in him now. Both he and Michelle seem to feel they know what’s best for us. However, they are not telling us the contents of that “best” to us before the election. I wish they would.
Another, more downside, interpretation of this is that in “organizer” hyperactive Chicago, those people have been “organized” so many times they know all about it. In which case, the question is, why aren’t they organizing themselves?
A lot of these places are almost overrun with organizations out to help them. I once was part of a group that went to the inner city [three blocks from the highest crime rate center in the state] to learn about agencies there to help minorities/the poor.
We broke up into pairs to visit the agencies. At the first store-front place we walked in and the director asked us to sign a notebook he had by the entrance. We did and talked to him about the services his agency had available. I asked how many people he helped and he said that they kept track of every single person they helped and nodded toward the notebook where we had signed in.
When we were at the next place, I realized I had left my notebook at the first place. Later that day I went back to get my notebook. When I arrived, he asked me to sign in again. I looked at the names between my first and second signatures and they were all of people in the study group. One wonders how many local people an agency like that actually helps.
