Smell of the sea - K.I.
When I was in college after the ouster of Ferdinand Marcos I developed this hobby of going to the beach. I love going to the beach so much that one summer I packed up things with my big mountaineering backpack and went to the Island of Siquijor for three days. In that island I pitched my tent beside the beach only me. I felt I was alone in that island. I love the smell of the sea and the breeze, the sound of waves. I love the texture of the sand and the taste of fresh tuna and cans of San Miguel beers. Summer is so memorable to me. Here in the US I always make it to open the windows of my car whenever I pass the San Rafael bridge going to Berkeley were I have classes. I like smell of sea breeze. It gives me flashes of the natural resouce my country have. Nothing can still compare the beaches in the Philippines. Places like Boracay in Panay, Puerto Galera in Mindoro or Sijuijor are beaches that captivates ones imagination. While there are beaches here in Marin it is a consolation of seeing also some forests -- a combination I really like. Marin is one of the nicest place to live here in the US. I have started to love this place. I like the place with activist minded friends around. Last week, civic minded friends of mine gathered in Marin and dialogued with politicians how to improve the life of people here.. The MOC which is an issue base organization affiliated with the IAF founded by the late Saul Alinsky. is important to me. They are important becuase provide venue for people to grow and engage. An article was forwarded to me. This is how ot goes...
Marin Organizing Committee, An Analysis
Last Thursday was the coming out party for what is initially styled the Marin Organizing Committee.(MOC). For the North Bay, the organization breaks new ground. It's a combination of faith-based institutions, e.g., churches and synagogues, along with a handful of
secular Marin nonprofits.
It's the first time in memory that Marin's substantial religious community has decided to flex their considerable civic muscle. While Marin County is a bastion of secularism in a post-secular America, even in liberal Marin, the largest number of individual participating in any organizations are in religious communities. Forget what you think about the conservative religious right. Think instead of mainstream leaders such as Rabbi Michael Lezark of dynamic Congregation Rodef Shalom, Father Paul Rossi of St. Raphael's Catholic parish in San Rafael, the leadership of the St. Vincent de Paul Free dining room and Rev. Pam Shortridge of Mill Valley’s Community Church.
The MOC has held almost four hundred preliminary meetings all organized along the lines pioneered by the Industrial Areas Foundation’s (IAF) legendary community organizer Saul Alinsky (a young Barack Obama was trained by the IAF). The MOC is formally allied with IAF. The genius of the IAF concept bringing together institutions rather than individuals. The members of the MOC are parishes, congregations and
nonprofits. Their rule is that decisions will be made on a consensus basis avoiding those social issues which have in recent years served to divide rather than unite faith communities.
For what does MOC intend to use their potential organizational power?
Their agenda is almost exclusively in the area of social justice, bureaucratically described as health and human services. Everything the MOC stands for is compatible with standard liberal-progressive ideology. This isn’t by any means a conservative operation. Their list of initial topics includes mental health services, education, housing, immigration, and the homeless.
More than six hundred members of MOC’s constituent groups made up a standing room-only crowd at St. Raphael’s gym this past Thursday night for their kick-off convention. Present on stage was Senator Carole Migden, Assemblymember Mark Leno, former Assemblyman and current Senate hopeful Joe Nation, Marin-Sonoma Assemblyman Jared Huffman, Supervisors Hal Brown and Steve Kinsey. In the audience were San Rafael Mayor Al Boro, Mill Valley Mayor Shawn Marshall and San Rafael Councilman Greg Brockbank, who is also Marin Democratic chair.
All on stage were asked to publicly commit to working with the MOC. Big surprise! They all agreed. Hardly a major commitment since almost any Marin officeholder will automatically commit to “working” with virtually any legitimate group.
Those on stage also unanimously pledged to oppose State Proposition 98, which if passed on June 3, will limit the abilities of locales to continue existing rent control laws. That commitment isn’t much of a stretch for any liberal Democrat. The lack of a pro and con discussion on Prop 98 was a downside, as rent control isn’t necessarily the panacea that it’s made out to be by the political left.
The future of the Marin Organizing Committee (they are searching for a better permanent name) is good but they need to guard against a few pitfalls. Many of these religious groups have always been outside of Marin’s political equation. Their political sophistication is limited. The myriad environmental and neighborhood organizations that have enjoyed a monopoly for the past quarter century know what they
are doing. While they have no objection to most of the MOCs general liberal social service-oriented goals, they old-line environmental groups will likely provide MOC with substantial opposition when their proposals for affordable housing, homeless shelters and the like become specific rather than general.
Don't think these folks are just going to sit around singing kumbaya. Talking to Organizing Committee leaders such as Sister Judy Donovan, the IAF's lead Bay Area Organizer, and Rodef Shalom's Meredith Parnell, it’s clear that these women are no pushovers. They aim for very substantial community-wide changes that will, without doubt, ruffle the feathers of those community organizations long in the cat bird’s seat
when it comes to setting Marin’s political agenda. That’s shorthand for the Marin Conservation League and allied organizations.
MOC knows that the only way to effect meaningful change is to hang in for the long haul. By organizing groups with substantial resources, large manpower and a devoted following, they just might be major players.
If MOC can get the people who belong to their member organizations on board, follow up with long term action and then convince these same individuals to participate in the political community by advocating the organization’s agenda, then their power is potentially potent. The trick is to pick issues carefully and sparingly. It’s obvious that MOC already has a tendency to pick a long laundry list of issues to advocate. They are well advised to select a single “big” issue, devote their resources to accomplishing that goal and not move on until it’s achieved.
I asked Sister Judy Donovan, the IAF's Bay Area lead organizer what differentiates MOC from the average left-wing social service-oriented nonprofit. The answer was that MOC style is to avoid rhetoric. Donovan said that they are “devoted to the principal of listening, negotiations and compromise." That’s terrific, but if it’s going to ne a reality, the MOC needs to guard it from being just another voice on the political left.
In recent decades, only Marin’s League of Women Voters and the County Grand Jury have developed the credibility to effectively find a middle ground to resolve divisive issues. If these churches, synagogues and allied organizations can facilitate compromise over any of Marin’s long standing dilemmas, they will indeed be doing God’s work.
It’s all easier said than done. At the same time MOC deserves great credit for at least trying. Last Thursday they got off to a first rate start. Time will tell where it leads.
Marin Organizing Committee, An Analysis
Last Thursday was the coming out party for what is initially styled the Marin Organizing Committee.(MOC). For the North Bay, the organization breaks new ground. It's a combination of faith-based institutions, e.g., churches and synagogues, along with a handful of
secular Marin nonprofits.
It's the first time in memory that Marin's substantial religious community has decided to flex their considerable civic muscle. While Marin County is a bastion of secularism in a post-secular America, even in liberal Marin, the largest number of individual participating in any organizations are in religious communities. Forget what you think about the conservative religious right. Think instead of mainstream leaders such as Rabbi Michael Lezark of dynamic Congregation Rodef Shalom, Father Paul Rossi of St. Raphael's Catholic parish in San Rafael, the leadership of the St. Vincent de Paul Free dining room and Rev. Pam Shortridge of Mill Valley’s Community Church.
The MOC has held almost four hundred preliminary meetings all organized along the lines pioneered by the Industrial Areas Foundation’s (IAF) legendary community organizer Saul Alinsky (a young Barack Obama was trained by the IAF). The MOC is formally allied with IAF. The genius of the IAF concept bringing together institutions rather than individuals. The members of the MOC are parishes, congregations and
nonprofits. Their rule is that decisions will be made on a consensus basis avoiding those social issues which have in recent years served to divide rather than unite faith communities.
For what does MOC intend to use their potential organizational power?
Their agenda is almost exclusively in the area of social justice, bureaucratically described as health and human services. Everything the MOC stands for is compatible with standard liberal-progressive ideology. This isn’t by any means a conservative operation. Their list of initial topics includes mental health services, education, housing, immigration, and the homeless.
More than six hundred members of MOC’s constituent groups made up a standing room-only crowd at St. Raphael’s gym this past Thursday night for their kick-off convention. Present on stage was Senator Carole Migden, Assemblymember Mark Leno, former Assemblyman and current Senate hopeful Joe Nation, Marin-Sonoma Assemblyman Jared Huffman, Supervisors Hal Brown and Steve Kinsey. In the audience were San Rafael Mayor Al Boro, Mill Valley Mayor Shawn Marshall and San Rafael Councilman Greg Brockbank, who is also Marin Democratic chair.
All on stage were asked to publicly commit to working with the MOC. Big surprise! They all agreed. Hardly a major commitment since almost any Marin officeholder will automatically commit to “working” with virtually any legitimate group.
Those on stage also unanimously pledged to oppose State Proposition 98, which if passed on June 3, will limit the abilities of locales to continue existing rent control laws. That commitment isn’t much of a stretch for any liberal Democrat. The lack of a pro and con discussion on Prop 98 was a downside, as rent control isn’t necessarily the panacea that it’s made out to be by the political left.
The future of the Marin Organizing Committee (they are searching for a better permanent name) is good but they need to guard against a few pitfalls. Many of these religious groups have always been outside of Marin’s political equation. Their political sophistication is limited. The myriad environmental and neighborhood organizations that have enjoyed a monopoly for the past quarter century know what they
are doing. While they have no objection to most of the MOCs general liberal social service-oriented goals, they old-line environmental groups will likely provide MOC with substantial opposition when their proposals for affordable housing, homeless shelters and the like become specific rather than general.
Don't think these folks are just going to sit around singing kumbaya. Talking to Organizing Committee leaders such as Sister Judy Donovan, the IAF's lead Bay Area Organizer, and Rodef Shalom's Meredith Parnell, it’s clear that these women are no pushovers. They aim for very substantial community-wide changes that will, without doubt, ruffle the feathers of those community organizations long in the cat bird’s seat
when it comes to setting Marin’s political agenda. That’s shorthand for the Marin Conservation League and allied organizations.
MOC knows that the only way to effect meaningful change is to hang in for the long haul. By organizing groups with substantial resources, large manpower and a devoted following, they just might be major players.
If MOC can get the people who belong to their member organizations on board, follow up with long term action and then convince these same individuals to participate in the political community by advocating the organization’s agenda, then their power is potentially potent. The trick is to pick issues carefully and sparingly. It’s obvious that MOC already has a tendency to pick a long laundry list of issues to advocate. They are well advised to select a single “big” issue, devote their resources to accomplishing that goal and not move on until it’s achieved.
I asked Sister Judy Donovan, the IAF's Bay Area lead organizer what differentiates MOC from the average left-wing social service-oriented nonprofit. The answer was that MOC style is to avoid rhetoric. Donovan said that they are “devoted to the principal of listening, negotiations and compromise." That’s terrific, but if it’s going to ne a reality, the MOC needs to guard it from being just another voice on the political left.
In recent decades, only Marin’s League of Women Voters and the County Grand Jury have developed the credibility to effectively find a middle ground to resolve divisive issues. If these churches, synagogues and allied organizations can facilitate compromise over any of Marin’s long standing dilemmas, they will indeed be doing God’s work.
It’s all easier said than done. At the same time MOC deserves great credit for at least trying. Last Thursday they got off to a first rate start. Time will tell where it leads.
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