I've always enjoyed reading about history but I think the one thing I can tell younger generations is that, for those of us born at the end of the "60"s onward, reading history is not nearly half as fun as living it!
People often ask what will distinguish Generation X and the generations that come after. I would say it is that we have had the privilege of being the first generation to grow up in an era where social paradigms that have been held for centuries are completely shattered.
We were born at the "end" of the Civil Rights era where in the US and across the globe people were awakening to the fact that words like equality and freedom could not just be put on paper and repeated, they have to be honored through actions and deeds.
The nuclear arms race and the resulting "Cold" War made us all realize the folly of trying to resolve social and political issues through global warfare (at least let us hope this lesson prevails).
Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and the Challenger taught us not to be overconfident in the power of our technology or complacent about safety issues.
The collapse of the Berlin Wall, the dissolve of the USSR, and the end of Apartheid taught us both that you cannot rule through oppression and that you can have peaceful yet radical revolutions against oppression.
Then came the Internet which created a complete social paradigm shift that has shattered communication barriers, business barriers, distance barriers, social interaction barriers,...and this is just the beginning.
So why in the context of all of this am I now talking about Community Organizing? Let's start with the definition: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_organizing
I was utterly stunned during the Republican National Convention to hear all the jeers and sneers about "Barack Obama is just a community organizer." If I had to give one example of how, of all parties, the party of Lincoln has lost touch it is this example. Lincoln championed the emancipation of slaves. The movement that led up the emancipation was a community organizing movement whether you called it the Abolitionists or the Underground Railroad or any other name.
Women gained the right to vote through community organizers called Suffragettes who mobilized in the UK and the US http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suffragette (those pesky and militant radical extremists!).
Dr Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela are globally renowned community organizers who will forever be honored by the history books. Muhammad Yunus and his Grameen model http://muhammadyunus.org/ will also go down in history as shattering the century old paradigm that claims poor people cannot get themselves out of poverty and that it takes lots of money to make money.
So now we get to a community organizer who was ridiculed and yet has become the first African-American (in all meanings of the term) President of the US - a global leader. On the face of it, this is the social barrier that has been broken: proving that equality is honored just as it is stated in the Constitution.
However, like all social transformations, at a deeper and much more subtle level, the change Barack Obama has made in us all is a lot more powerful:
(1) To quote his book "The Audacity of Hope" - for 150yrs many have been longing to see the day when those of African descent are treated the same as those of Caucasian descent. The fact that it has happened to someone who came from a mixed heritage, single mother, and limited financial resources is even more inspiring. Since Tuesday I hear a change in tones and statements from: "nothing I do will ever matter or make a difference" TO "if I work hard, apply myself, develop a plan and stick to it I can accomplish anything I want to do."
(2) The power of collective action - from the first day of his campaign, Obama challenged everyone by saying (not a literal quote) "if you believe in the same ideas that I do, work with me, work with your neighbors, work with your friends and we will bring about change." Such a simple concept - let's talk to each other and work together in order to create the world we want to see around us! Fundraising standards and techniques for a US Presidential election have been changed. I anxiously await the mind blowing changes that will come during Obama's presidency not because of new government policies or big government but because individuals take his call to heart and continue to remain mobilized and actively engaged in their communities. Like my father said to me not in a demanding but rather in an encouraging way: "Obama has become President, what will you do to change your world?"
(3) Young and Old can work together - throughout the campaign you had those who are seasoned and with experience working alongside those who are young and inexperienced. A confluence of ideas and of actions all towards a shared vision and goal. Each generation learning from the other and leveraging the strengths that each has to offer. All this creating an amazing and unstoppable synergy which led to unprecedented election results.
Let the GOP (Grand Old Party) AND all of us who have witnessed this NEVER question the power of Community Organizers and self-empowerment again!
At the end of election night, as the whole world watched, Obama asked: what will those who come 100 yrs from now be able to say and accomplish?
I would say the foreseeable answer is a world without war, without poverty, without oppression, and, where humans and nature live in harmonious balance on a flourishing planet. What we cannot foresee should be 10X or 100X more awesome than this!!
Ohhh, to be able to live long enough to enjoy living through that history as it gets made.....
- Titania Guerrera (November 8, 2008)
