The First Step In Community Organization Is

Do One Of Three Things. One, Go Find A Wailing Wall And Feel Sorry For Yourselves. Two, Go Psycho And Start Bombing - But This Will Only Swing People To The Right. Three, Learn A Lesson. Go Home, Organize, Build Power And At The Next Convention, You Be The Delegates.

The Democratic Ideal Springs From The Ideas Of Liberty, Equality, Majority Rule Through Free Elections, Protection Of The Rights Of Minorities, And Freedom To Subscribe To Multiple Loyalties In Matters Of Religion, Economics, And Politics Rather Than To A Total Loyalty To The State. The Spirit Of Democracy Is The Idea Of Importance And Worth In The Individual, And Faith In The Kind Of World Where The Individual Can Achieve As Much Of His Potential As Possible.

Life Is There Ahead Of You And Either One Tests Oneself In Its Challenges Or Huddles In The Valleys Of A Dreamless Day-to-day Existence Whose Only Purpose Is The Preservation Of A Illusory Security And Safety. The Latter Is What The Vast Majority Of People Choose To Do, Fearing The Adventure Into The Known.

Organization For Action Will Now And In The Decade Ahead Center Upon America's White Middle Class. That Is Where The Power Is. ... Our Rebels Have Contemptuously Rejected The Values And The Way Of Life Of The Middle Class. They Have Stigmatized It As Materialistic, Decadent, Bourgeois, Degenerate, Imperialistic, War-mongering, Brutalized And Corrupt. They Are Right; But We Must Begin From Where We Are If We Are To Build Power For Change, And The Power And The People Are In The Middle Class Majority.

We Must Face The Bitter Fact That We Have Forsaken Our Great Dream Of A Life Of, For, And By The People; That The Burning Passions And Ideals Of The American Dream Lie Congealed By Cold Cynicism. Great Parts Of The Masses Of Our People No Longer Believe That They Have A Voice Or A Hand In Shaping The Destiny Of This Nation. They Have Not Forsaken Democracy Because Of Any Desire Or Positive Action Of Their Own; They Have Been Driven Down Into The Depths Of A Great Despair Born Of Frustration, Hopelessness, And Apathy. A Democracy Lacking In Popular Participation Dies Of Paralysis.