My Community Organizer Days

Captain Push was a Community Organizer. Now before you start snickering about my penchant for gathering Organs in the Community, let me explain that I am serious and have the resume to prove it.

Some years ago, while living in a small town (My Sarah Palin Creds on display) I recognized the need for certain community services, among them a Fire Department to complement our Volunteer Ambulance Service. A small group of like-minded individuals gathered and formulated a plan. First, we would take over the existing joke of a Fire Service and then we'd form a Community Service District to operate and fund it.

Plan A was initially, a huge success. We joined and raided the volunteer fire service and installed the Chief of our choosing. Afterward, we began a petition drive to form a service district with taxing authority. We were in for a battle against entrenched politicians like we never imagined. Despite our efforts and a pro-bono attorney of some reknown, we were defeated because the County registrar-recorder refused to remove DEAD people from the voter rolls. (No we did not file a writ of mandamus but considered it. The deck was stacked against us.)

So here's what we did. Plan B. We re-worked our petition and re-walked every inch of our proposed district choosing to form a Fire District without taxing authority which requires far fewer signatures to establish. The County, relieved that we couldn't self-govern, was happy to validate our petition without holding an election. (We would have won anyway.)

As a community organizer, I walked and talked and begged, cajoled and seduced (just kidding) every resident of our proposed district TWICE. I made countless trips to the county seat to battle the board of supervisors and their paid attorneys. I worked for the people. My associates worked as hard if not harder. And none of us ever asked for anything in return. Our efforts were self-rewarding. The silence from the people who gave so much is deafening. I am proud to have been a part of something that manifests itself today in a very well managed organization providing needed services for so many often-neglected people.

This is but a small part of my personal resume but one that I'm rightly proud of. I imagine it stacks up well with Barry Obama's but I'm not running for public office. He is. He's running for President and he's in your living room every day. He might be in your life every day for the next eight years. By the way, I'm NOT qualified to be President despite my "community organizer" credentials.