From: Paul Sharpe [mailto:Paul@SharpesWeb.us]
Sent: Wednesday, September 24, 2008 10:52 AM
To: 'Lopez, Steve'
Subject: RE: Keep up the great slanted articles - Community Organizers
Thank you for your reply – I see your point. But Rudy and Newt were bashing on the level of qualifications.
Comparing political leaders who compete for their position versus organizers who just show up and start organizing, just doesn’t have the same level of leadership qualifications or accountability.
Thank you again – I enjoy many of your articles and discuss them with my friends and family.
Have a good day.
From: Lopez, Steve [mailto:Steve.Lopez@latimes.com]
Sent: Wednesday, September 24, 2008 9:33 AM
To: Paul Sharpe; Readers Rep
Subject: RE: Keep up the great slanted articles - Community Organizers
Palin’s tone was somewhere between contempt and ridicule.
She was backed by rudy guiliani and newt gingrich, the latter of whom said, “community organizer, whatever that is.”
Clearly there was a memo on the organized bashing of the very idea of community organizing.
I’ve been to Wasilla. I don’t think palin’s stewardship is anything to boast about.
From: Paul Sharpe [mailto:Paul@SharpesWeb.us]
Sent: Wednesday, September 24, 2008 9:08 AM
To: Readers Rep
Cc: Lopez, Steve
Subject: Keep up the great slanted articles - Community Organizers
Reference today’s “In Alaska, community organizers have real responsibilities”, 9/24/08 by Steve Lopez.
His obvious slanted attack on Sarah Palin is so plain, I am surprised he did it.
Sarah’s ridicule of Barack’s community organizer experience was to compare her experience to his. A community organizer has a focus on the issue of the day, trying to rally support and bring attention to issues that need to be addressed and then to get action taken. Certainly this deserves recognition of serving our community.
But, there is no comparison to being a mayor (let alone a governor). A city or state leader has dozens of decisions to make each day on issues including those brought up by dozens of community organizers. This was the point Sarah was trying to make – not belittling community organizers for their contribution to their communities.
So, keep up the thinly veiled leftist slanted opinions and watch the LA Times continue to dwindle in circulation. When the LA Times finally dies, a less biased paper like the DailyNews may prevail.
Have a good day.
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From the Los Angeles Times
In Alaska, community organizers have real responsibilities
The volunteer workers have been honored at the highest level of state government for making a difference.
Steve Lopez
September 24, 2008 ANCHORAGE — There's nothing unusual about the kind of work Bonny Sosa did in Alaska. She, like hundreds of people in Southern California and every region in the country, saw a problem in her community and tried to fix it. The diabetes rate among children was disturbingly high, said Sosa's husband, Sam Young. So, in 2003, he and Sosa called everyone they knew, met with school administrators and public officials, and formed a grass-roots group called Healthy Futures to teach nutrition and organize outdoor activities for children. "Bonny changed the way Anchorage thinks and plays in such a positive way," a city official said when Sosa died in August at age 50, just a few days after being diagnosed with a brain tumor. Only a few weeks after her death, Sarah Palin, the governor of Alaska, ridiculed Sen. Barack Obama for his days as a community organizer. She and other GOP operatives belittled the very idea of such work. All I could figure was that one of two things was going on here: Either this was another example of the dishonest and sleazy stuff served up in political campaigns by folks on both sides of the aisle. Or Alaska must not have any community organizers. Judging by what I found in Anchorage, it's the former. Debbie Hinchey, Sosa's sister, is another longtime do-gooder. When I reached her by phone, she told me she had just come home from refurbishing a city rose garden, as a volunteer, when she heard the cracks about community organizers. "It was pretty much of a slap in the face," she said. When I first began asking around town for the names of community organizers, people quickly mentioned Mark Butler. He's the manager of the Anchorage Federation of Community Councils, a nonprofit that is somewhat similar to the neighborhood councils we have in Los Angeles. Butler assists 38 councils made up of volunteers who work on everything from gang-related crime and housing-related issues to business district improvements and park expansion. You need speed bumps to slow down traffic? These are the guys to call. Young toughs with guns hanging out in the local park? These folks can get the cops rolling. Butler's office is in the same building as Big Brothers and Big Sisters, AIDS intervention and senior support agencies. I can't imagine Gov. Palin really meant to disparage all these folks. Butler, who grew up in Cleveland, said Anchorage is a place where power is dispersed and community involvement is encouraged. "The bottom line is we like to get involved," said Butler, who took me on a tour with Matt Johnson, chairman of the North Star Community Council. "You see how that sidewalk slants right there?" asked Butler, pointing to narrow and tilted pavement at the intersection of Fireweed Lane and Spenard Road. In snow and ice, he said, students from a nearby school slide perilously close to traffic. He and Johnson are lobbying to eliminate one lane of traffic and widen the sidewalks, but that involves the hard work of winning compromises from merchants who are opposed to such a change. "We're working with everyone to make it better," Butler said. One of the headaches they're working on now, Johnson said, is "punks in trucks" who go speed-balling through neighborhoods. Speed bumps will help there. Oh, and alcohol. "Public inebriates is one of our biggest problems," Johnson said as we came upon a young couple stumbling down a street, the woman whacking the guy with a rolled-up newspaper. "Everything OK?" Johnson asked, putting them on notice. It seemed like they'd survive the night, so Johnson urged them to move along. If they hadn't, he might have called a volunteer member of the council's Community Patrol to keep an eye on them. At Spenard and 27th, Butler pointed out a cluster of low-income apartments on a street with no sidewalks at all. The North Star council successfully lobbied City Hall to buy a rundown business and clear the way for some improvements that are in the works. "Alaska is a place where, if you're interested, you can really make a difference," Butler said. Seems to fit perfectly with the GOP mantra of smaller government and more personal responsibility, wouldn't you say? Butler, by the way, knew Bonny Sosa. She was active in one of the neighborhood councils, he said, and he was the one who put me in touch with her family. When I called Sam Young, Sosa's husband, he said Healthy Futures has served thousands of children and will go on trying to make a difference. The organization, sponsored in large part by a grant Sosa negotiated from ConocoPhillips, has received numerous honors and recognition. One of the bigger ones came late last year, said Sam Young, when November was designated Healthy Futures month in a proclamation by Alaska's highest-ranking state official. Gov. Sarah Palin.