Organizers not all Democrats

I enjoyed reading the recent letter to the Yuma Sun describing community organizers in general, and Saul Alinsky in particular, as out to destroy the United States (“Obama radical organizer at heart," Aug. 10).

For those who do not know, Alinsky is the person who has had more to do with developing community organizing as a profession than any other, and is well known for his book, "Rules for Radicals."

This book was read by President Obama, who, early in his professional career, trained and then worked as a community organizer. During the presidential election of 2008, a wide variety of right-wing pundits, politicians and ideologues excoriated candidate Obama for this experience, describing, as did our local letter writer, community organizers as radicals out to ruin our country.

Given this background, I was surprised to learn that FreedomWorks has publicly embraced Alinsky and his book. As many of you know, FreedomWorks is the conservative group that helped promote the so-called tea parties and is now assisting citizens to develop the skills they need to confront their congressional representatives regarding proposed changes in our health care system at town hall meetings.

FreedomWorks is chaired by Dick Armey, former House Republican majority leader. Brendan Steinhauser, director of federal and state campaigns for FreedomWorks proudly describes the use of Alinsky’s methods on the FreedomWorks Web site.

Given that community organizing has been decried by Republicans as a strategy for instituting government control over our citizenry, must we now conclude that FreedomWorks has been enlisted in a covert campaign to destroy our country?

Is it possible that all of the well-meaning citizens enlisted by FreedomWorks to hold tea parties and berate their congressional representatives at town hall meetings have been duped into supporting this despicable plot?

The answer to these questions, readers, is no. What has actually happened is that Republican strategists have, once again, sought to have things both ways, using the legitimate, effective techniques for organizing citizens pioneered by Alinsky while simultaneously disparaging these same techniques and any non-Republicans who use them as un-American.

I, for one, look forward to seeing more of my fellow citizens, Republicans, Democrats and Independents, using the techniques of community organizing as the basis for holding their elected representatives accountable and influencing the outcomes of public policy debates.

Given the history of community organizing in our nation, history that continues to be made, I believe that we can all proudly point to Alinsky and community organizing as products of our American heritage.

ANTHONY J. ALBERTA
Yuma