This Sunday, MICAH, the organization in Framingham, MA, I organize, will hold a voter registration drive in some of the Town’s precincts that don’t have the voting strength of the more affluent precincts.  It is a common American tale.  Those without less free time, less money and less formal education tend to vote less often than those with more of the above.  Part of our answer are events like the one we will hold this Sunday at St. Tarcisius Church.  Lots of food, free T-shirts, and hopefully more registered voters at the end of the day than at the beginning.  We were glad to have this article in the Boston Globe, thanks to a contact my wife made at work with an interpreter who free-lances as a Globe stringer in Framingham.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/09/25/voter_sign_up_takes_aim_at_new_citizens_low_income_groups/

My colleague Lew Finfer was asked by Boston Globe columnist Kevin Cullen about the foreclosure crisis, now that President Bush wants to bail out the financial institutuions that profited from the sub-prime mortgage fiasco.  From our congregation-based organizing, we knew of someone who we thought would exemplify the problem, and this column in today’s Boston Globe came about:

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/09/25/no_bailout_for_romilda/

“Building Powerful Community Organizations is what you get when a wise veteran organizer…gets around to letting the rest of us in on his secret…  Brown manages to be both reflective and disciplined, arranging his book so every chapter is filled with exercises, case studies and an innovative use of “Quick Tips” that offer the reader a fast way to integrate the tools in the book.  he is also a gifted storyteller…

Practical and step-by-step, the book’s thirteen chapters offer grassroots organixers and leaders thinking about starting a group (or groups in need of renewal) a workbook and spirit guide….

Not just for beginners, he offers seasoned organizers refreshing wake-up calls throughout the book…a useful and personal guide.”

-James Mumm, Executive Director of the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition.