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Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Armondo Vega
Public Affairs Reporter
Friday Mary Gonzales was generous enough to visit our campus, giving a presentation titled “Embracing Power and Self-Interest.” Ms. Gonzales is the Western Territory Director for the Gamaliel Foundation, which serves as a mentor-network for affiliate organizations, assisting them with consultation on organizer recruitment, leadership training, and resources for advocating just causes. Some of her previous experience includes successfully lobbying for keeping over 850,000 units of affordable housing in Hawaii from being converted into upscale condominiums, and working with U.S. Senator Barack Obama when he was still a community organizer on the streets of Chicago.
Noting that most people in America don’t see themselves as having a role in the political system, Ms. Gonzales drew the relationship for the crowd between democracy and active participation in the political process.
“We’re a democracy. It only works if we participate. It doesn’t work if we just elect the candidates.”
She commented on a recent study showing that of the 137 countries in the world with a democratic form of government, the U.S. has historically ranked around 130th in terms of democratic participation. “And we say we’re the ones to teach democracy.”
Another main theme of Ms. Gonzales’ talk focused on power. It’s something we receive conflicting messages about in our society, but it is necessary for change. We can all choose to go the route of victimization and complain of life’s ills, which might be the easier way of things. Or we can harness responsibility and build within ourselves the power to influence conditions. By stepping up to that task, we may set ourselves up for judgments by others, whether positive or negative, and this unnerves many who fear making too much noise against the status quo. But if your values are strong enough to overcome your own personal trepidations, they can drive you to accomplish great things. She offered Bill Clinton as an example, a man who came from an unremarkable lower-middle-class background and built himself up into a powerhouse, to be able to implement those values he felt so strongly about.
Of course, as we all know, by no means does power necessarily lend itself to what is “right.” Power does what it wants, and powerlessness accepts this. As members of a democratic society, what can we do to ensure that those in power serve the interests of the people? Ms. Gonzales stated that there are three tiers of power in the world: Those at the top (examples include the Federal Reserve, OPEC, multinational corporations), those at the bottom (e.g. non-profits, labor unions, advocacy groups), and the mediators/translators. This intermediate group includes Congress, organized religion, and the media. Too often they serve the will of those at the top while still attempting to appease us. “A spoon full of sugar makes the medicine go down,” said Ms. Gonzales.
It is our responsibility to engage in the process. “Whoever has more people and more money organized wins” battles in the political sphere, she said. We can’t just rely on the “liberals and do-gooders” for change; their relative numbers simply aren’t enough. In order to engage the people, most need self-interest incentives as well. Self-interest can be the ideal between the extremes of selfishness and selflessness she said. This can require dialogue, to find out what needs and values people have, and to show the connections which exist between those and the political process.
It even asks us to hold a dialogue with ourselves. Quoting a colleague of hers, she said “We are a pile of undigested happenings.” We need to ask ourselves: What made us who we are? Most people just sit on “their God-given capacity.”
The Gamaliel Foundation has pledged its very existence to extracting that potential from people toward just cause. They do no solicit “volunteers,” whom Ms. Gonzales compared to the extreme of selflessness, which is often timid and not forthright. “We want enlightened self-interested leaders who can realize what they stand to gain through participation…My hope is you will all figure out what your role is” in that regard.
