I had the description of this work in my mind as a young girl. I found the label for it in seminary when I took Rev. Don Stalhut and Rev. David Mann's course on organizing. From the first class, I knew i had found my lable, community organizer.

I need to reflect on my sources of inspiration often. Usually these sources are other organizers who are doing the work well, especially one of my great inspirations, Pr. John Rutisdintwarane, who is organizing in Rwanda.

Organizers hold great privilege to be invited into this work and so deeply into the lives of others.

It is ok if others don't get it. This Work is for the select who do, and those of us who do get it are motivated to bring the benefit to all.

My first agitator was the Autobiography of Malcolm X, the Civil Rights Movement became my already but not yet motivation.

My first work was with migrant workers in rural Iowa, I walked with them, sometimes in the fields feeling stifled by social service and pushed to social action. I was thrilled to come to know the UFW in Berkeley, CA.

I worked for two years as a seminarian volunteer in a church basement next to CAL Berkeley, as part of the Sanctuary Movement. I saw conviction I never imagined possible. At the Fruitvale Catholic Worker House I also came to know the liberative work Dorothy Day inspired and what it means to be a beloved community.