I wish I could see this whole Firing Line program. Mr. Buckley surely seemed to get more than just a leg up on Mr. Alinsky at the end of this brief excerpt, but I beleieve Mr. Alinsky actually liked Mr. Buckley, as his smile seemed to indicate at the end of this brief exchange.ri
Many of you know that I knew Saul Alinsky and liked him. Yes, Mr. Alinsky knew what he was doing, when he purposely made enemies. For example, in Kansas City, where I met him, police brutality was a huge problem in the "projects." I witnessed it. So, if the Chief of Police is hated by the people Mr. Alinsky was trying to get to stand up for themselves and live with pride and dignity, then Mr. Alinsky would sucker the Chief into saying something bad about Mr. Alinsky, thus enabling Mr. Alinsky to achieve immediate trust from the people who knew that police brutality was very real in their neighborhoods.
Alinsky wanted real change. He did not want people to be dependent. He did not want poor people to be discriminated against. He did not want the status quo to be continued. He wanted people to take control of their own lives, their own neighborhoods.
It is true that there were many "church people" who helped bring in Mr. Alinsky to organize communities across America. Many of these men and women had one foot in the "projects" and one foot in the circles where powerful people like the chief of police lived. I knew Mr. Alinsky in 1968, about the time that this interview was conducted. It was a time of great change in America. In this tape, though, Mr. Alinsky comes across as a hateful idiot. Is he espousing adultery?
Were Mr. Alinsky's organizing programs successful? Well, they mobilized a lot of people to demand better schools, better living conditions, better treatment from the police. They learned how to organize and gain political power.
In the final analysis, though, all of us have to be the best each of us can be as individuals. We have to believe in ourselves, make the most of ourselves, work hard, and take advantage of the opportunities that America provides, and the abilities that God has given to each of us. That includes our responsibilites as parents. It includes our responsibilities as "church people," sharing what we know about the love of God.
2 comments:
How do you since you had a first ring seat so to speak explain what Alinsky said. I mean his words at any rate speak different from what you are describing.
Terri,
My understanding of him was, as I wrote, that he wanted real change. He saw the anti-poverty programs as nothing more than welfare programs that would keep the status quo. As a young social worker starting out, I saw things the same way. I wanted people to break free from dependence on these programs, do the things that would enable them to gain self respect and dignity, pride in accomplishments, and personal responsibility.
As time went on, I was personally turned off by his purposeful scapegoating of good people who happened to be in positions of power, such as Clarence Kelly, Kansas City's Chief of Police.
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