Wall Street, Ohio Kids, and McPalin
Good morning! it’s 5:45 am here in New York, 62 degrees in Central park. I shot out of bed this morning from strange dreams and NPR on the radio to voices of students who camped out in Ohio, ready to utilize the early voting machines. Very exciting. The organizers in Ohio are at their best. They’re "not going to make the same mistakes they made in 2004" said one organizer. The financial crisis seems to be working to Obama’s advantage on all fronts: beware of course, as Saul Alinsky, the father Chicago style grassroots organizing was quoted by Hunter:
"Don’t worry, boys, we’ll weather this storm of approval and come out as hated as ever." –Saul Alinsky to his staff shortly before his death, June 1972
Before that, he wrote in Rules for Radicals, outlining his strategy in organizing, writing in the prologue:
There’s another reason for working inside the system. Dostoevski said that taking a new step is what people fear most. Any revolutionary change must be preceded by a passive, affirmative, non-challenging attitude toward change among the mass of our people. They must feel so frustrated, so defeated, so lost, so futureless in the prevailing system that they are willing to let go of the past and change the future. This acceptance is the reformation essential to any revolution.
So, what will happen if and when a bill is finally passed by congress to bail out the corporations, banks and as of this morning, some Detroit auto workers? Some people are saying that the Vice Presidential debates will have a huge impact. I don’t know about that. McPalin seeems more like pure entertainment than anything else. But then again, I guess we shouldn’t underestimate Palin, despite her moose-in-the-headlights performances in interviews so far:
Our friend Kit Seelye (who attended Hunter’s memorial after taking a ride with me in the 200 foot high crane basket earlier that day), has been following McCain. She was also the one who pulled many gonzo truth telling tactics and brought to light the fact that McCain was not in the building when Obama was answering the questions that day in the first Q&A. Kit has now researched Palin’s Alaskan gubernatorial debates:
Perhaps her strength in debating was coming across like an average person who understood the average person’s needs and would not be expected to have detailed policy prescriptions.
She also neutralized some of her conservative social views. She said intelligent design should be taught in schools — along with evolution. She said she favored the teaching of abstinence — along with the teaching of sex education. “Let the kids debate both sides,” she said.
She was not a particularly aggressive debater, and she rarely took an opportunity to challenge her opponents. But when pressed, she could be tough. In a roundtable discussion in October on the “Bob and Mark Show,” Mr. Halcro suggested that Ms. Palin had not attended enough debates.
“It’s been a year today that I’ve been on the campaign trail,” Ms. Palin responded, “attending many, many more forums, more debates, than either one of you, Tony and Andrew, because I had a primary opponent. You know, you got to have the balls to take it on in the early part of a campaign, and not just go right to the big show.”
— read the rest of KATHARINE Q. SEELYE, New York Times here.
Anyway, I’m lacing up my tennies for a jog, to procrastinate finishing the not-so-exciting essay I fell asleeep reading last night…
Until next time, your friend off to jog in Riverside Park, far far away from Wall Street!
Anita Thompson
