The Democratic Party has lost much of it credibility with working class and low-income people. It retards progress toward presenting a genuine alternative.

What makes community organizing especially attractive is the faith it places in the ability of the poor to make decisions for themselves.

We need a new kind of citizenship, so that we can see citizens as themselves earning the rank of patriot because of their involvement in their community affairs....We as a society need to be encouraging people to focus not just on individual wants but on serving the larger community.

The first task in teaching is to bring to consciousness what the students already believe by virtue of their personal experiences about themselves and society.

Politics is not predictions and politics is not observations. Politics is what we do. Politics is what we do, politics is what we create, by what we work for, by what we hope for and what we dare to imagine.

I emphasize self-esteem, self-confidence, and dignity, not as an ideal, but as a real test of community organization. Without leadership development, community organizations do not have staying power.

We must renew democracy itself. We have to fight cynicism and inertia and restore faith in the advancement of our country.