A local reporter interviews Michelle Rhee and fails to clear a bar set for her by a colleague

Last October local SouthComm blogger Betsy Phillips introduced new SouthComm reporter Andrea Zelinski in an interesting way. Yes, full disclosure counsels that Phillips' wrote some "homer" PR fluff on behalf of the news corp she blogs for. So, take the cheers with a grain of salt and then verify for yourselves. And yes, it is remarkable that Phillips dropped a double-edged sword of praise for Zelinski qua woman (saying males "don't really know a lot about the reality of women's lives" even as she also argued that women's issues are not different than issues, like jobs, that concern males). Yes, it can be argued that Phillips takes away with one hand what she gave with the other.

Those questions are not nearly as interesting in the wake of Zelinski's recent interview with lightning-rod education reformer Michelle Rhee. Move to Phillips' conclusion, where she sets a soaring bar for Zelinski's work to be judged by: she insists that Zelinski may help "fix" the problem of reporters who "play into the way politicians frame their arguments".

Given the track record of collusion of reporters and the communications machinery of politics (evinced by the lateral professional pipeline between news and PR), such an achievement would be a dizzying prospect for Zelinski or any other journo.

Having granted that, I'm not sure she came close to the bar in her Rhee interview. Rhee, a politician in her own right, was permitted, nearly invited, to frame the arguments on her own terms.

Start with national public education advocate Diane Ravitch, who read Zelinski's interview and blogged on it. Ravitch's analysis suggests to me that Rhee effectively framed her argument without follow-up or challenge from Zelinski:

The story describes her thus: “A Tennessee transplant, she is turning her attention to schools in her new state.” It also refers to the “roots” she is “setting” in Nashville. Apparently, she never told the reporter that she lives in Sacramento, not Nashville. She describes herself as a “public school parent” because one of her daughters attends public school in Nashville. But she did not acknowledge that her older daughter goes to an excellent private school, Harpeth Hall School (“Nashville, TN’s only independent, college-preparatory school for girls, grades 5-12”).

One can hardly blame her for choosing Harpeth Hall. It has an 8:1 student/teacher ratio, with a median class size of 13. Class sizes in public schools in Nashville and other cities are much, much larger.

I bet that Harpeth Hall does not give standardized tests and does not evaluate teachers based on their students’ test scores.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if Michelle Rhee became an advocate for small class size, and for the same goals and purposes for all children that she wants for her own child?

So, Zelinski did not do much to challenge Rhee's framing her brand as a Tennessee public school parent. In fact, Zelinski's primary follow-up on the question of Rhee's children was framed as "public or charter", not "public, charter or Harpeth Hall". If we apply Betsy Phillips' own standard about challenging dominant framing of issues and values, Zelinski lobbed no critical questions that would have basically challenged Rhee's frame job.

Where Rhee actually lives and her status as a private and a public school parent are both critical points that deserve follow-up questions by any reporter, man or woman. Either the reporter did not know that information or she chose (or was editorially prompted) not to disclose that information and follow-up accordingly.

In the end, to what "different perspective" (Phillips' term) does Zelinski's interview allude?

Zelinski describes Rhee in nearly favorable terms that the latter would probably not disagree with: "an icon of the education reform movement .... [who] pushed to hold teachers more accountable for students’ performance, busted open the doors of school choice and shaken up the education establishment." The framing here is ridiculously uncritical and by no means distinctive.

Loaded, but unpacked reform vernacular like "teacher accountability", "student performance", "school choice", and "education establishment" is hardly neutral. In fact--without acknowledging exaltation of standardized testing, without analyzing the actual choices framed by privatization and without observing that the education establishment is bankrolled by corporate philanthropy and massive government funding influenced by campaign finance--this interview is biased toward education reformers like Rhee.

Zelinski's interview comes on the heels of a PBS Frontline documentary that shows Rhee, having invited cameras into an exit interview with a principal, unprofessionally firing that principal as the video rolls. Zelinski could have raised questions about the impropriety, if not the viciousness of that, but instead, the reporter herself frames Rhee's mean behavior more favorably in a general sense: "she's thrown a few elbows". Educators losing their jobs in humiliatingly publicized fashion is hardly analogous to getting whacked on the basketball court. I still struggle to see the "different perspective" Betsy Phillips tells us Zelinski will be bringing to SouthComm reporting.

In fairness to Zelinski, Rhee is a tough cookie, a veteran of news interviews who knows how to dodge land mines. When Frontline sent Rhee some follow-up questions based on a principal who claimed to have witnessed school employees erasing and changing test answers after students turned them in, Rhee simply did not reply to PBS reporters. So, if Zelinski had asked more critical questions that actually challenged Rhee's dominant framing of her reputation, Rhee might have refused the interview.

But that still leaves the problem of the lofty bar set for Zelinski in the first place. If Rhee would not allow Zelinski to ask probing questions that might actually challenge her framing of education reform, then Zelinski cannot help but ask the questions she did, and those questions (to use Betsy Phillips own word) "played" uncritically to Rhee's advantage.

The bar had simply been set too high.


UPDATE: At her personal blog, Betsy Phillips responds to this post. I have two three replies:

• Phillips never lifts a finger to answer the primary question of my post: what "different perspective" did reporter Andrea Zelinski bring to the Michelle Rhee interview that helped her refuse to "play" into Rhee's framing of the education reform issue? For Phillips to maintain that she was merely supporting another woman is disingenuous. She made a specific claim: that Zelinski would conduct herself differently as a woman when faced with the framing behavior of powerful people. The question still stands: where is the difference in the Rhee interview?
• Phillips speculates that I see conspiracies in women "writing positively" about other women. First, I do not. What I am responding to on a material level is branding of the SouthComm product; what I am responding to on a less tangible level is the predisposed tone of SouthComm writing. I previously posted on that predisposed tone regarding the writing of one of Phillips' other colleagues (who is male) on the subject of education reform. Likewise, when Phillips blogs under the Pith in the Wind masthead, particularly when she showcases the work of other SouthComm writers (as has been the established practice at Pith for years) the writing has a marketing life of its own. Why else does Pith exist, but to promote the brand? Second, why is it acceptable that, when a critic observes continuity between the writing and the brand, s/he is opened to charges of conspiracy? (And outsiders are not total dolts. We know that writers, editors and reporters inside news companies interact with one another agree on their own frames of interpretation). By the way, at least one local journo (who is male) has responded to similar criticism with the same hyperbole that they are not told what to write. As I explained two years ago, the brand is not a bunch of disjointed pieces wrenching themselves away from each other. There is organizational and interpretive cohesion. Hence, it is legitimate to judge the SouthComm news brand as a whole. That does not mean I see black helicopters.
• Phillips seems to resort to passive-aggressive criticism over my use of the term "tough cookie" in describing an all grown up Michelle Rhee who influences policy at a national level. It was a nice try on Phillips' part, but she failed to add that the context in which I used the term "tough cookie" is an all grown up one: Rhee is a veteran who dodges land mines. There is nothing symbolically childlike or diminutive about that metaphor. On the contrary, in that context, "tough cookie" means hard-nosed, strategic, battle-wise. Phillips, who concedes she has her own agenda, seems to be reading a gender agenda that I do not have into my observations of Rhee.

Local blogger exposes sexist emails allegedly sent out by MNPS male supervisor

Over at Gemna Speaks, Gemna Holmes broke some rather provocative news regarding an email allegedly sent by Metro Nashville Public Schools Food Services Director Jay Nelson (I added the emphasis below):

Recently, a Metro Nashville Public School (MNPS) male supervisor sent an email to female subordinates that has gone viral. In the food service department, the female to male ratio is 9 to 1. An email with a cartoon depicting a caveman telling another caveman that he has decided to teach the woman to talk and asking “what harm can it do?” is not funny. Period ....

I contacted several MNPS food service staff members at area schools to ask them about their work environment which the email made me question right away. No one wanted to go on record for fear of losing their jobs but all agreed that email that I read was a glimpse behind the drawn shades of a school system that has become synonymous with devaluing its support staff.

Jump to Gemna's blog to see the offending cartoon and get more details. These allegations are chilling for MNPS given that they come on the heels of a complaint filed against Jesse Register for "overreaching" and attempting to "silence" MNPS support staff. What kind of climate do service workers weather under the MNPS umbrella?


By the way, this is not the first time Director Nelson has had his oversight scrutinized. In 2004, MSNBC found conditions in Metro school cafeterias in bad shape under his watch:

...unlike last year [when new crews popped in], there were no mouse droppings under food service lines. But mice still roam other parts of some Nashville school cafeterias.

But the Nashville school district had its most serious problems with food temperatures, worse than any other city we visited. When checking hamburgers, one of the most dangerous foods if not cooked thoroughly and held at 140 degrees, inspector Steve Crosier couldn't believe his eyes as the thermometer needle fell. It finally bottomed out at around 78 degrees.

Hansen: "How quickly does bacteria grow, bacteria that could make a kid sick at 78 degrees?"

Prof. Berg: "It grows really, really quickly. 78 degrees, 110 degrees, these are optimum temperatures for bacteria. Not for us."

Cold pizza may be a staple around college dorms, but health officials say it could pose a danger for a young child if not kept at 140 degrees to kill bacteria. At 60 degrees the pizza was 80 degrees too cold.

Prof. Berg: "It is that cheese. It's almost like a Petri dish with bacterial growth."

At McGavock High, inspectors saw something a lot scarier than cold pizza -- shards of glass mixed in with fruit in a cooler. Apparently, the light shield, the metal cover that goes over the glass dome shield, fell.

Jerry Rowland, Health Director: "I can't remember the last time that I saw an inspection where there was glass inside a food in a school cafeteria or in a restaurant."

Inspectors also found a fifty pound bag of USDA-donated flour in a storage room infested with bugs. Jay Nelson is the head of food services for Nashville schools.

Hansen: "Don't the people look around and say, this needs to be cleaned. This has bugs. This is rotten. This is at the wrong temperature. Before kids come in to eat in these rooms?

Jay Nelson: "Chris, I would have fully expected that happens. But as we can see it doesn't."

Hansen: "How can you guarantee that the next time we come down here, we won't see some of these very same things?"

Nelson: "Chris I'd be a fool to guarantee you that you're not going to see some of the very same things. What I want to see is our total scores of all the schools improving, and continually improving."

Maybe it's good news that the MNPS dining services brain trust is no longer having to defend alarming food conditions in its cafeterias. Is it too much to expect that Mr. Nelson find a way to stop imposing demeaning cartoons on rank-and-file workers?


UPDATE: MNPS's cartoon fiasco hits the airwaves.

The inept left

I've said it over and over again: the shallow, milquetoast liberalism restricted to progressivism on social issues (identity and gender issues, for instance) and hobbled by dependence on partisan Democrats will never be a broadly inclusive movement. It can never be more than a limited, status quo echo ignoring basic reform of power structures and larger visions of justice.

But don't take my word for it. A history professor provided a comparison of American populism, left and right, in last weekend's New York Times, and he effectively articulates the limits of liberals that block progressive goals:

the left must realize that when progressives achieved success in the past, whether at organizing unions or fighting for equal rights, they seldom bet their future on politicians. They fashioned their own institutions — unions, women’s groups, community and immigrant centers and a witty, anti-authoritarian press — in which they spoke up for themselves and for the interests of wage-earning Americans.

Today, such institutions are either absent or reeling. With unions embattled and on the decline, working people of all races lack a sturdy vehicle to articulate and fight for the vision of a more egalitarian society. Liberal universities, Web sites and non-governmental organizations cater mostly to a professional middle class and are more skillful at promoting social causes like legalizing same-sex marriage and protecting the environment than demanding millions of new jobs that pay a living wage.

A reconnection with ordinary Americans is vital not just to defeating conservatives in 2012 and in elections to come. Without it, the left will remain unable to state clearly and passionately what a better country would look like and what it will take to get there. To paraphrase the labor martyr Joe Hill, the left should stop mourning its recent past and start organizing to change the future.

I've been told before that a local journalist once described me as "to-the-left-of-left". If the reporter said that to my face I would reply that there is not much left here to be left of. There is no popular movement for challenging the system. I may be "to-the-left-of-left" but it is meaningless relative to what passes for progressivism: fractured, reactive and desperate; dependent on party wonks and politicians who could take or leave movements or the interests of regular people.

Maybe his manhood is a little threatened by women

For CM Buddy Baker it's a second strike in the game of gender politics. Today he was quoted in a story calling the woman running against him, Mary Carolyn Roberts, a "girl":

On Monday morning, Roberts said she would visit the Davidson County Election Commission to compare lists of those registered to vote in District 20, and those who voted in the district Thursday night ....

"This girl, I'm telling you the truth, she just cost me a bunch of money," Baker said of Roberts, referring to his decision to hire an attorney to represent his case. Baker has tapped attorney Stephen Zralek, who works at Bone McCallester Norton PLLC, to provide legal counsel.

This was not the first time someone in Baker's camp referred to Roberts as a "girl." Several days ago the president of Nashville Limousine Service, Inc. also caricatured Ms. Roberts with his own diminutives in a campaign letter sent to voters:

We don't need a Belle Meade thinking girl that has no idea of the history and thinking of this community. I urge you to vote Thursday and I ask you to vote for Buddy Baker for councilman.

I might not have as much of a problem with Baker's side calling Ms. Roberts a "girl" if, every time they did, they referred to Baker as a "councilboy." Otherwise, Ms. Roberts should be referred to as a woman. Who knows, she may end up being called "councilwoman."

Music City Center omens realized

SEIU representative Mark Naccarato lists the many predictions about new convention center construction made by critics that have come to pass:

We have been proven right on nearly every claim we’ve made about the MCC. The city’s bond rating has fallen because of it, nearly all of the construction and sub work was given to out-of-state firms, and minority- and women-owned business contracts were not awarded at the levels your people promised the council and the African-American community. We also predicted that you would get played into handing out major tax breaks (i.e. lost revenue) to try and close a deal on a hotel. Looks like that’s happening too. Every other city in the country is ditching Convention Centers and TIF’s, but not Nashville.

Gender Curiosity

After watching a replay of Tuesday night's council fairgrounds debate, I think that the City Paper's Metro beat reporter singled out only one curiosity at the expense of a host of others:

Councilwoman Emily Evans offered the most curious line of attack last night when she referenced Metro Finance Director Richard Riebeling’s former role as a commissioner on the fair board during portions of the Phil Bredesen and Bill Purcell administrations.

However, Mayor Dean's Economic and Community Development Director, Alexia Poe (who was introduced with the news that she was taking time away from her maternity leave to promote the Mayor's plan to move fairgrounds events like the flea market to Hickory Hollow mall) even more curiously brought up her maternity leave a second time in the middle of  her discussion. The manner in which she brought her personal situation into the policy discussion struck me as an insinuation that she thought the mall proposal so important that she was willing to sacrifice her right to be with her newborn.

It seems to me that maternity leave is mentioned once as a point of polite deference and respect. I do not question the nobility of sacrifice or the appropriateness of calling attention to it in the introductory remarks. But for the new mom to bring it up a second time smacks a little too much of piling on, that is, an emotional appeal that had nothing to do with the merits of the discussion about the fairgrounds.

Hence, it was most curious to me. And it was out-of-order.

I did not see the same level of curiosity that reporter Joey Garrison did in CM Evans noting that Karl Dean's Finance Director approached former Mayor Bill Purcell to lobby for privatizing the fairgrounds. Noting that Riebeling had been carrying the torch rather than responding to community priorities was evenhanded, and more importantly, it was on the subject of the merits of the proposal.

Why Garrison did not note the curiosity of Poe's reference to maternity leave in the middle of the debate is beyond me. I plan to watch the replay again on Metro 3 just in case I am missing something here. However, if my interpretation holds, I would reply to Ms. Poe that many of the people in the room were likely making personal sacrifices with respect to family members to spend 3 hours listening and discussing the fairgrounds proposal.

Upcoming opportunities to enjoy and to support fine arts in North Nashville

An announcement from Chris Clarke at the Tennessee Women's Theater Project regarding cultural events here in the North Nashville community (the first three are at the Z. Alexander Looby Theater, 2301 Rosa L. Parks Blvd, Nashville 37228):

Tennessee Women’s Theater Project Announces 2010-2011 Season

Tennessee Women’s Theater Project has scheduled its 2010-2011 season of professional theater, presenting two plays new to Middle Tennessee audiences, and the return of the company’s annual Women’s Work showcase of performing and visual arts.

• October 1 through 17, 2010 - Unravelling The Ribbon. This is the US professional premiere of an acclaimed Irish play about the effects of breast cancer on three women. 7:30 pm – October 1, 2, 7, 8, 9, 14, 15 & 16. 2:30 pm – October 3, 10 & 17.
• February 25 through March 13, 2011 - Impressionism. This gentle romantic comedy, set in a small art gallery, shows how love can heal broken lives. 7:30 pm – February 25, 26, March 3, 4, 5, 10, 11 & 12. 2:30 pm – February 27, March 6 & 13.
• May 6 through 23, 2011 - Women’s Work 2011. Our fifth annual showcase and celebration of performing and visual arts created by women. Presenting artists to be announced. 7:30 pm – May 6, 7, 12, 13, 14, 19, 20 & 21
  2:30 pm – May 8, 15 & 22.
• Warriors Don’t Cry on tour 2010-11 – we’re taking our celebrated one-woman show, based on the memoir of Little Rock Nine member Melba Pattillo Beals, on tour to schools and other organizations, including some two dozen free performances in Metro Nashville high schools.

According to Chris, tickets for the Looby Theatre shows are $15 for adults, $12 for students and seniors, and $10 for Thursday shows. For more information and reservations call 615-681-7220 or jump to www.twtp.org.

Battle of the Sexes Women Marathoners Hit North End First This Morning, Leave with Men Right Behind

I was surprised to see this group of women coming up Rosa Parks ahead of everyone except for a couple of wheel chair athletes. I was less surprised that elite women might be leading the elite men than I was that they did not have the typical entourage of police and cameras on motorcycles that leaders usually get.



Then I found out that they were in the lead of the "Battle of the Sexes," after an 18-minute head start on the elite men, who ended up winning the battle at the end.

But the men's elite leader was already hot on the womens' heels after arriving at Bicentennial Mall after MetroCenter:



The eventual winner, Amos Matui, was not too far behind either. Five men eventually came across the finish line before the first woman marathoner. So much for the Battle of the Sexes.

On behalf of my daughters, thank you, Mr. President

They will now grow up in a land where they can keep the faith that if they work hard they stand an equal chance of making what they deserve free from discrimination and male privilege. The world just got better not only for girls and women, but for fathers like me.

White Males: Compare and Contrast

[Barack Obama] whose Democratic support comes from blacks, college graduates and affluent voters, doesn't have to sweep white workers in November.

If he loses this group by no more than 12 points ... he'll probably take the White House.

- -Obama Losing White Male Voters Doesn't Elect McCain, Matthew Benjamin, June 2008

Obama performed slightly worse with white women, 39 percent of voters, than Al Gore did in 2000. McCain won the votes of white women, 53 to 46 percent ....

Obama compensated for the drop-off in white female support with the strong 41 percent support from white men. No Democrat since Carter had until Tuesday’s election earned more than 38 percent of the white male vote.

In 2000, white women split between the two parties while Republicans won white men by 24 percentage points. That white male gap was dramatically narrowed Tuesday to 16 points, a trend that began with the financial crisis, and one that allowed Obama to split the male vote overall ....

McCain won only 57 percent of the votes of white men, who were again 36 percent of the electorate.

- - Exit Polls: How Obama Won, David Paul Kuhn, November 2008

The Snark That Just Keeps on Giving

Oh. He mentioned Aristotle. He must hold women in low regard.

Laying the Trump

I learned a while back that when I get dismissed on the basis of my genitalia, my gender in a general way, the real debate on the actual issue is most likely over:

when you’re trying to have a discussion with men, especially men who think other men are watching or participating, you have to go through this metaphorical dick-waving before you can get down to the meat of the issue.

I suddenly feel like I've been cast into a stupid light beer commercial against my will:

All of the phallic symbolism is in place. Now, what were we actually debating again?

Another Bending Counter to the Typical Gender Double Standard Arguments

Mommies simply are devoted to their children (to the point where all they need is sperm), while daddies have to be talked into giving up "freedom and masculinity" to be devoted to their children.

That kind of logic may increase web traffic and get head nods from the regulars of über-popular mommy blogs, but it is also shot full of holes, especially for those of us daddies who have been the primary caretakers of our children.

On the one hand, Lindsay Ferrier seems to live in a far off land where fathers raising their children is alien and unnatural. On the other hand, I've been living at home for a long time.

Tailor-Made Double Standards Cross Gender Lines

CNN's Campbell Brown is not pleased about what she calls "sniping" about clothes:



I don't have a problem with Campbell Brown's argument that there is a double standard whereby men are judged less for their appearance and clothing than are women. I think that the double standard is less severe in the business world outside of the visual and entertainment media than it was say in the 1980s.

However, the double standards cut both ways. At last Tuesday's Metro Council meeting, Vice Mayor Diane Neighbors had what looked like a dark jacket with bright flower patterns on it. I remember seeing the previous Vice Mayor, Howard Gentry, wear clothing with flower patterns all of one time, when he wore a Hawaiian shirt to Shakespeare in Centennial Park one summer. Women have latitude to go more garish in their business dress (also different than the 1980s when professional women's suits seemed to resemble men's suits--remember Lilith from Cheers?) than do men, assuming the latter desire to be taken seriously. Howard Gentry could have never gotten away with wearing a Hawaiian shirt during a Metro Council meeting, but Diane Neighbors is relatively free to wear bright floral patterns.

I'm not complaining about that double standard, but at the same time that Campbell Brown wants me to remember the double standard with regard to strictures of appearance (which are probably even more strict for the insulated NYC media) I think we should also keep in mind the wider latitude in general that women are given in terms of color and decoration to garb that men are not allowed.

Either way, there's no excuse for spending $150,000 for clothes for a woman who claims to be from among the rest of us. The rest of us rarely if ever go to Neiman Marcus. So, Campbell Brown's point is misdirected at those who are not focused on appearance. I don't consider Sarah Palin's appearance the point of this story. And I don't question the Republicans' right to spend their own money. I question their savvy and their consistency in hard economic times when they say they claim to identify with everywoman and in the face of news that they dropped $150,000 on Palin's clothes and $8,700 on John McCain's make-up.

He Would Rather Deny Women Their Health Than Lose an Election

Watch the independent voters responses flat-line in the bottom graph when John McCain wags quotation-mark fingers at the notion of women's health:

I will give this to McCain: his dismissiveness of a mother's health is consistent with Sarah Palin's history of making rape victims pay for rape kits. It's mavericky nowadays to care less about women's health.

Let the Weak Be Strong. Let the Right Be Wrong.

Germantown blogger Kate O' makes a nice catch of an LA Times piece quoting her neighbor, songwriter Gretchen Peters, who criticizes John McCain/Sarah Palin for co-opting one of her tunes in their campaign:

The fact that the McCain/Palin campaign is using a song about an abused woman as a rallying cry for their vice presidential candidate, a woman who would ban abortion even in cases of rape and incest, is beyond irony .... They are co-opting the song, completely overlooking the context and message, and using it to promote a candidate who would set women’s rights back decades.

In response, Peters is donating her royalties to Planned Parenthood to help women in need.

Here is Peters' song performed by Martina McBride in a foreign country, no less:

UPDATE: Here's Gretchen Peters' original press release. GoldnI caught this before Kate did.

Busting Up the Republicans' Palin Myth with Their Own "Mommy Penalty"

Pew brings the numbers:

Democrats were significantly more likely to vote for a candidate for Congress who is the mother of small children than to support an identical candidate who is the father of small children (33% vs. 24%). Democratic women in particular more strongly supported ... the mother than Andrew ... father (36% vs. 19%). Among Democratic men, neither gender nor parenthood made a difference.

Taken together, the findings suggest women with young children pay a "mommy penalty" among Republicans if they run for Congress. Among Democrats, by contrast, it's the fathers of small children who are at a disadvantage and it's the mothers who are more likely to be strongly supported.

These results echo the findings of other Pew surveys that show Republicans -- who are more likely to embrace traditional social values -- are far more troubled than Democrats by the long term trend toward mothers of young children working outside the home. In a 2007 survey, for example, some 53% of Republicans described this trend as bad for society, compared with just 38% of Democrats who felt the same way.

Might I suggest that the strong conservative embrace of the idea of Sarah Palin running is overcompensation for all of the conservative repression of gender equality and fairness at home and at work? It's either got to be repression or full-blown charisma envy. Otherwise, both the contradiction and the willingness suspend doubt and believe in Sarah Palin without ever actually touching her nail prints defy logic.

20,000 Women Responding to Sarah Palin in Their Own Words

What happens when a small group of women send a request for impressions of Sarah Palin to 40 other women, who turn around and pass it on to their extended networks?

Go find out.

And then support them by linking them.

Keep the responses growing.

HT: Carole Borges

Nightline Calls Potential Strife between Clinton and Palin "Cat Fight"

Nightline anchor Terry Moran said tonight that Hillary Clinton is avoiding a "cat fight" with Sarah Palin by not criticizing her directly.  Oh, what a liberal media.

Palin Would Not Be Governor If Not for Community Organizers

I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a 'community organizer,' except that you have actual responsibilities.

- - Sarah Palin, GOP convention speech

One time he said you never really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them.

- - Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird

Sarah Palin's attack on community organizers shows that she has no clue about the exacting job requirements of community organizers. Worse, she has no clue about her own debts to the history of community organizing in America, which stretches back to the 19th Century.

One of the most important books in the history of social movements is Robert Fisher's Let the People Decide. In that book Fisher traces the genealogy of community organizing from the 1880's, and if Gov. Palin knew that history she would see that the privilege she enjoys in serving in a high state office and her chance to be placed on a major party's presidential ticket is due in no small part to community organizers who started fighting for national women's suffrage in 1920 and a 2nd wave of organizers in the 1960's and 1970's who demanded equal rights for women.

But she owes what she has to an even larger cloud of organizers. The legacy of community organizers includes prominent women focused on various types of communities. Jane Addams started the first settlement houses that provided day care for working mothers and education for all ages of people at the bottom of the pecking order. Dorothy Day, mother of the Catholic Worker Movement, advocated for women's rights, ran hospitality houses for the dispossessed in urban slums and opposed the sexual revolution of the 1960s.

Sarah Palin's children owe the existence of the leisure time to join their mother in Minneapolis to community organizers like Mother Jones, who organized children working in mills and mines in the early 20th Century to leverage change from a Republican administration that otherwise ignored the ills of child labor. The tiny contingent of African American delegates applauding Ms. Palin attacks enjoyed the right of traveling to Minneapolis via desegregated interstate travel thanks to Rosa Parks, who learned the art of civil disobedience right here in Tennessee at the Highlander Folk School from a community organizer, Myles Horton (who also trained Martin Luther King, Jr.).

You see, so much of Sarah Palin's public life would have been erased had it not been for the thankless work of an unbroken line of community organizers (both remembered and forgotten). But she had no thanks in her snide and sophomoric denigration of community organizing. She expressed prideful and pompous disdain for her forebearers as if she earned the privileges of public service all by herself (thus confirming the perception that Republican leaders get born on third base and assume they hit triples). And her previous life as a beauty pageant contestant, TV desk reporter, and hockey mom never afforded her the opportunity to stand in the shoes of people who work night and day (including weekends) for modest pay to serve their community by organizing it.

Worst of all, she abdicated her responsibility as a public servant to retell the story of American progress as her own story. For the sake of personal gain and her own portfolio, Sarah Palin attempted to poison the perception of Americans who may know community organizing even less than she does. The story of America since the late 19th Century is the story of immigrants being "Americanized," women getting the vote and breaking through vocational glass ceilings, African Americans finally enjoying the basic civil rights to which they were entitled ages ago, Latinos fighting for the full fruits of their labors, children being freed from sweat shops to go to school and to play (and, in Bristol Palin's case, freed to have their own children), and neighborhoods leveraging a place at the table of decision makers. Community organizers are the central protagonists in that story, even if Sarah Palin doesn't really understand or acknowledge that.