Who In Blazes Was Saul Alinsky?

            If you are ever drowsy and turn to talk radio to avoid caffeine pills, you will hear the “Right’s Reverend Mr. Bluster” disparagingly refer to Saul Alinsky as if everybody who is conscious knows he was the personification of evil.  This always makes me smile, and here’s why:

            Saul Alinsky was a champion of the downtrodden, the disenfranchised, the poor, and the politically excluded.  He wrote Reveille for Radicals.  You should read it.  In that book he contends that people can solve their own problems if they will just work together.  He goes on to describe how to organize local people into powerful working groups that get things done.  Alinsky was a 20^th Century organizational superman.  Many of today’s leading corporations use his concept of bringing diverse opinions together to achieve success.

            He also wrote Rules for Radicals.  You’ll find the tactics it describes in wide use by conservative legislators and interest groups as they pursue their objectives.  (The “haves” have hijacked Alinsky’s methods from needy “have not” Americans.)

            Unlike anyone you will suffer on talk radio, Saul Alinsky was a great American, who taught underdogs how to overcome evil.  And he did it without preaching that the wealthy of our country are abused by our tax system.  He helped ordinary people cope with the political and economic abuse they encountered in their hard daily lives. 

Around here, Saul Alinsky was a blessing.  Strutting martinets notwithstanding, anyone who is conscious, and paying attention, smiles with me.