WADE RATHKE is the founder of ACORN, Chief Organizer at ACORN International, and Author of "Nuts & Bolts", "Citizen Wealth", "Global Grassroots", and "The Battle for the 9th Ward".
New Orleans During this year’s US Independence Day, I was in London speaking to ACORN members there and answering questions, following a screening of the The Organizer, about ACORN history among other things. I was asked whether ACORN, at the national or international level, used patriotism as an organizing tool or principle. The …
Amsterdam There are a lot of rules in my house. They come and go, but one has been permanent for over forty years: don’t ever miss a flight home! It’s a rule worth taking seriously, and I believe in it heartily. One old colleague, based in Dallas, once memorably turned to her staff on …
Heerlen Heerlen, Netherlands is a city of 90,000 in a 250,000-metro area now in the southeast piece of the country midway between the Belgium and German borders in a stretch of the country hardly sixty kilometers wide. The town was built on top of coal deposits at a time when coal was king …