thinking about acorn

So if you've been following the election closely, by now you've heard of ACORN and the accusations of voter registration fraud. Too bad the right forgot to do their homework (as has been the usual case in the McCain campaign). It turns out any attempt to link ACORN's registration efforts to Obama are more than somewhat undermined by the fact that McCain had friendly relations with the group not so long ago. ACORN's retort to charges coming out of the McCain camp is sharp.

It's funny for me to read about ACORN since I did spend a summer working for them. I was a community organizer for about five weeks in Des Moines and then about five weeks in St. Paul. Now I can't even remember why the summer got split like that. I think maybe it was because the St. Paul office needed bodies and the Des Moines office had more than enough, and being from Minnesota at the time, I was asked to go. Anyway, that half-memory fits in with how I remember the two offices. Des Moines was lively. There were four of us summer workers, plus three paid staff, and a number of member/voluteers. The Des Moines lead organizers were dynamic. St. Paul was near-moribund. Both the paid-staff lead organizers were not high-energy, to say the least. And the urban summer was more oppressive. But the Des Moines office and campaigns I remember as amazing.

I only worked the job for the summer, but at the time, because I was only nineteen, it felt like a long time. Even though over the years I'd occasionally hear about ACORN in the news or alternative press, and think to myself, That was a difficult job which used a somewhat flawed model, I wonder how it is still going. But I also took satisfaction in knowing that ACORN was still around and doing important things, and organizing for real grassroots political power.

Now I know how to keep up with ACORN related news. Wade Rathke has a blog.