Okay, I’ll admit that this post has (almost) nothing to do with the fact that President Obama was a community organizer, but it has everything to do with how inseparable community and organizing are. Check out this video from my friends at Iowa Global Warming about the National Day of Service in Des Moines, IA on January 19th. I’ll explain the connection to Obama later in this post.
(I’m not actually in this video, but these were some of the people I worked with that day)
In parallel to Matt’s recent post about the balance between traditional organizing tactics and civil disobedience, I want to discuss the balance (and sometimes tension) between volunteer service and organizing. Back in April I wrote about my personal struggle in valuing volunteerism on a level plane with activism. The major tension I experienced reflected my desire to have the biggest impact possible – I wanted to maximize the scale of my influence with the limited amount of time and energy one person can contribute.
What I failed to acknowledge was that by maximizing my scale of influence I was minimizing the level of personal interaction I experienced through this work. I spent hours on conference calls, days on campus visits across the Midwest and weeks without face-to-face interaction with most of the people I work closely with. Even though I have lived in Iowa for almost two years, I realized that I barely knew my own city because I was focused on happenings elsewhere.
Perhaps it was the focus on campus activism, perhaps it was my own limited experience, perhaps I was a little shy, but it became painfully obvious that although I organize a community of youth, I was completely removed from my own community. As long ago as April I noted that this vision of a better future
will be brought into being through the everyday acts of kindness, courageousness and compassion in complement with the direct intent and strategies of activism.
The work of creating a more sustainable future must be local and national (and international). This means that the work we do to strengthen our communities is exactly as vital as the political advocacy I engage in – they are both needed to meet the challenges facing us.
So, finally I decided to be an active participant in the community I now consider home. On January 19th, the day before President Obama’s inauguration and the National Day of Service, I joined with ordinary folks from around Des Moines to weatherize low income homes in our city. This was not glamorous work, but I made a tangible difference in the lives of people in my own city AND did just a little bit to reduce our energy consumption.
A funny thing happened that day. I felt more productive in one afternoon than I had since the election in November. I had directly contributed to improve the quality of someone’s life, reduce the amount of money their drafty house sucked out for heating, met some amazing local people and had a tangible effect on global warming. Okay, so maybe it was an extremely small impact on global warming, but it was still real. So frequently the effort I put into organizing has indirect results that it’s easy to feel like I haven’t accomplished anything. But this was direct and tangible.
And small.
As many readers of this blog will agree with, we can’t just work on local sustainability; we must also pursue systemic change. The thing is, systemic change takes time and moves slowly. So, almost a month late, I made the New Year’s resolution to volunteer directly in my community at those time when I feel most ineffective, and at least once a month (whichever is more). As organizers it can be a struggle to maintain balance in our lives; will you join me in balancing organizing and community service?
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