In researching Barak Obama and his job as a "community organizer" I kept running into comparisons with people like Saul Alinski and Cesar Chavez and the late Senator Paul Wellstone. But that did not explain how Obama could, very early in his campaign, draw thousands of people like a Rock Star, or raise the kind of money he was spending. On the internet I kept seeing references to the "Gamaliel Foundation", so finally I did the obvious: I Googled it to see if they might have a web site. And, boy, to they have one. The Mission statement says: "The mission of Gamaliel Foundation is to assist local community leaders to create, maintain and expand independent, grassroots and powerful faith-based community organizations so that ordinary people can impact the political, social, economic and environmental decisions that affect their lives; to provide these organizations with leadership training programs, consultation, research and analysis on social justice issues, to be a network for mutual learning environments and working conditions." It says Gamaliel has 60 affiliated organizations in 21 states, plus five provinces in South Africa. The web-site says "we represent over a million multi-faith, multi-racial church-going people who work on social justice campaigns." "Social issues" seems to be their rallying cry, and they highlight such things as Civil Rights for Immigrants, health care for all, jobs now, opportunity housing, and increasing resources for public transportation. They collect money through PayPal and they get lots of it. Give them credit: they have put the Gamaliel Foundation where you or I or anybody else can find it. And as I studied the several pages of their website, I had to ask: is this the heart and soul of the NEW Democrat Party? Google Gamaliel and see what you think.<br />
<br />
<I>This is Gordon Sawyer, from a window on historic Green Street.</I>
