What can a Political Activist do for Your Community

I just got through reading Senator Barack Obama’s book Dreams from my Father, A Story of Race and Inheritance. Senator Obama was a community organizer after he got out of college in the early eighties. He went to Chicago’s lower south side to help community leaders improve conditions for the people who lived in those neighborhoods.

I can relate to his work in that area because I call myself a political activist. I work with politicians in order to help improve the standard of living in my own local community. I have no desire to become a politician so most politicians welcome the opportunity to work with me because they know in the long run that it will be a beneficial relationship for both of us. I first started out trying to work with my neighborhood association only to find that they did not want to get involved with policies. Like most people at the time they felt it was a dirty word. I find that the only way to bring about real change is to get the attention of the local politicians who represent your area of the city. Those politicians are responsible for how government funds are spent to improve local communities. Without the help of local city and state representative’s neighborhood only tend to decline over time. It truly is a matter of the noisy people getting the most attention from local government.

I moved to my part of the city about seven year ago. My neighborhood had just started on a long decline that has only gotten worse over the last few years. Since I am a handicapped single mother I live in an apartment complex because it is easier to have other people do the yard work and keep up a pool for me. I could not afford high priced apartment complexes because I live on a substitute teaching salary. I wanted some place quiet and safe because I had a small child. I wanted some place where my neighbors were liberal because I am a liberal. I like the apartment complex that I live in because it is brick and reminds me of a place I lived in back east when I first got out of college in the early eighties. I like the tree lined streets because it gives the area a feel of community.

Over the last seven years a number of issues have come to the forefront that needs attention so that we can improve our local community in this part of the city. We need a larger library with more books and longer service hours so that our children will have access to those learning supplies. We need a larger community center that provides more than just a small room that no one in the neighborhood even known about. We need to do something about the local convince store that sells alcoholic drinks to people who are homeless and drug addicted. Those poor people are driving off businesses that could help improve our community. Those individuals also break into our businesses and homes in order to get money to buy drugs and alcohol to feed their habits. We need to increase community policing in our community so that local authorizes are aware of their activities. If the decline in our area of the city is to be turned around than someone needs to speak out on these issues.

As a political activist I can only try to get the people who live in my community to register and vote so that the local politicians see that we care about the issues. I want them to see that the residents of our community care about getting our issues addressed in the near future. One of my biggest problems is that because I am white and well spoken politicians often mistake me for someone who lives in a nicer part of the city. They are surprised when I tell them that I live on the edge of a community that is in desperate need of help. They think that I should be married to someone who can give me and my child a stable home and lots of money. My family feels the same way.

Well I am not married to anyone at all and it is up to me to provide support for my community and my small family so I got over it a long time ago and I freely tell them to do the same. I learned how to speak up for myself and those around me. I know that not everyone understand or is appreciative of what I am trying to do for our community and myself. Some people fear bringing attention to themselves out of a since of pride or fear of what the results will be in the long run. They know that if a community gets better that often lower income people are simply driven out of the community to some other place within the city. Some people truly think that they don’t deserve to be treated as other people are treated. I refuse to accept that anyone should be treaded different just because of the level of their income or the color of their skin. Everyone should have the right to speak up for improvement in their community’s basic needs not matter what their skin color or income level. We do have a long way to go before the people in charge of government in this city treat people of color on the same level as those of us who have white skin color. In my area of the city there is a large population of Native Americans and Spanish speaking individuals this does not help when they asks for money to support community improvement or development.

Up until our last city election our local representative on our city council was as white as I am but now we have someone who is Hispanic. I had to stop and explain where I live because every time he see me he thinks that I am nothing more than that rich white girl who gives him a hard time about improving our local community. One of these days he will remember where I live and I am sure that I will be able to convenience him that our community is in need of improvements. Last time we talked I ask him for a new and bigger community center for our part of the city. Once he knew where I lived then he had to agreed that we did need to do something about that community center. Some times I think that he needs to dream a lot bigger then he does for our community. The city did get around to recognizing that across the major street from where I live needs improvement. This will give us funds to improve that area of the city. With the local hospital leaving our part of the city, we need more businesses and redevelopment. We need someone to look at our area of the city and we need to look at having a redevelopment plan that takes into consideration the people who already live in this area of the city. We have a middle school which is surrounded by sex offenders. The children are not safe to walk home from that middle school but nothing is ever said or done about the problem. As a parent I personally have no problem driving sex offered out of my community. I would also like to see more programs to deal directly with drug and alcohol addiction in our community. We need someone out on that main street at 9:00 am every morning who has training on how to help the people who cross the street and come into my neighborhood. Last but by no means least our local church leaders should step up and start helping the homeless around our community. We have a church on the corner of where our community is having problems with homeless people coming into our community but I don’t hear them doing anything to help these poor people. I don’t see any activities going on at that church but weekend services. Maybe they could reach out to help these homeless people.

In the end what we need are more people like me who are willing to stand up and talk to local politicians who control the funding and get them to support improvements in our local community.