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As a community organizer, have you ever approached someone about joining an organization only to be turned down? Did you hear excuses like “I don’t want to rock the boat” or “Legislators don’t listen to us because we are a little agency!”? All too often I have heard these excuses and the only reply I have is “There is power in numbers.” While this statement is accurate, it fails to demonstrate the effectiveness of numbers when trying to affect change. It is for this reason that I offer the following:
Imagine your local legislator’s view of a particular new bill or regulation is like a picture. As you know, pictures are made up of thousands of pixels. Now imagine that pixels are representative of people. If you try to change the picture, you are just a single pixel. You are but a single dot in the big picture. You cannot change the picture by yourself.
Now imagine that you are part of a community organizing group. This community organizing group is made up of organizations that represent hundreds of people each, and this community organizing group is a part of bigger organization that is made up several community organizing groups. There are now thousands of people. Now when you want to change the picture, you are able to because you have thousands of pixels making the picture appear as it should be seen.
Single pixels appear as dots. Many pixels make pictures.
Shawn Kennemer
Associate Vice President
Safety Compliance Officer
Bakersfield ARC