Open Letter to Rudy Giuliani

Dear Mr. Giuliani,

Congratulations on your speech last night. The false teeth look great!

Among the many things I took note of were your divisive, vitriolic, misleading and borderline-slanderous remarks about Barack Obama and other Americans. One thing in particular that stood out to me were your disparaging comments about Mr. Obama’s work as a community organizer, and then your disdain for the profession overall.

Perhaps you have forgotten, or never really learned what a community organizer is and what he or she does. It’s easy to get caught up in this GOP whirlwind when you advocate for candidates whose political stances completely undermine the beliefs of the majority of citizens of the very city you were a mayor of not too long ago. It’s easy to dismiss the importance of community organizers when you are disliked and ignored by the union of firefighters you claim to be a hero of. So let’s brush up on our knowledge of community organizers!

Community organizers are people that mobilize aidworkers and volunteers to offer their hands and help in times of crisis. Community organizers help orchestrate grand political and social movements. Community organizers advocate for social justice and equality. Community organizers put their blood, sweat and tears into securing jobs and aid for laid-off workers in the South Side of Chicago, for ensuring equal protection for people regardless of race, gender, religion, sexual orientation and identitiy.

Communtiy organizers, include (just to name a few) Dr. Martin Luther King Jr (ever heard of him), Elizabeth Cady Stanton (she made sure that women like Sarah Palin, who you introduced last night, can vote), John Brown (who led an abolishonist movement), Yuri Kochiyama (an Asian Pacific American (yes we exist too) who joined hands with other civil rights leaders to build a coalition for social justice in America), and Mahatma Gandhi (if you don’t know this one, just stop reading). That’s just a couple of them. Community organizers are the same people that made this country the independent nation that it is. Community organizers are patriots.

Now that you know what community organizers do, and how incredibly stupid it was on your part to scoff at them and to encourage others to demean their accomplishments, you can see that you yourself have the capacity to be one too. While I may not at this moment equate Barack Obama with the leaders I have mentioned above, I certainly recognize he has the potential to bring about immeasurable change and unity this country needs.

I am a community of one, and my regret this year is not getting organized to make you a Vice Presidential nominee for the sole personal pleasure I would get from seeing Joe Biden eat you alive at the debates.

All the best Rudy!

N.M.