Last night the Republicans mocked the fact that Barack Obama worked as a community organizer. It involved working with churches to help laid off workers and get back on their feet. He was helping the poor and the disadvantaged.
Tonight, John McCain asked people to serve.
“If you find faults with our country, make it a better one. If you’re disappointed with the mistakes of government, join its ranks and work to correct them. Enlist in our armed forces. Become a teacher. Enter the ministry. Run for public office. Feed a hungry child. Teach an illiterate adult to read. Comfort the afflicted. Defend the rights of the oppressed. Our country will be the better, and you will be the happier. Because nothing brings greater happiness in life than to serve a cause greater than yourself.”
Jack Tapper addresses the hypocrisy:
If a community organizer isn’t someone “defend(ing) the rights of the oppressed,” or getting involved to correct the mistakes of government, what is it?
It’s still amazing to me that someone would mock this kind of service. I hear it from friends all the time – often from people who claim to be Christians. One can argue about whether this experience, together with being President of the Harvard Law Review, working as a civil rights lawyer, serving in the Illinois State Senate and becoming a US Senator, is good preparation for the presidency, but it does not deserve scorn and ridicule.
It says more about the people who deride this service, and frankly it says quite a bit about John McCain, who always calls for service, but then let’s politcal hacks like Rudi Giuliani disparage such service for political expediency.
