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 Having not flown in months, I was curious what was up in the airways. My 6:15 AM on a Saturday to Atlanta was the first flight out of New Orleans. That was already strange. It used to be one of many. Where was the 5:28 AM to Houston? The 6:00 AM to Chicago? …
New Orleans Changing planes between Tirana and Sofia, we ended up going through Rome. Miraculously, my phone was working, so I reached out for David Tozzo, head organizer of ACORN in Rome, and happened to catch him. It turned out that he was co-teaching a regular class on community organizing every other Saturday morning. …
Brussels Saul Alinsky would have wanted to be seen as a realist, so I can easily imagine him just shrugging and saying the equivalent of a “whatever” from more than 45 years ago. The right seems to read him more closely than the left, both in the US and abroad, but at least some are …
Brussels Language is a funny thing. Even when we think we are totally in synch, we are easily sidetracked. Examples abound. This morning the directions to the airport train took me to the Metro station which I only sorted out once I had paid two euros ten for a subway ticket. 500 meters and nine …
Brussels There were more than twenty people in the room, mostly from Brussels area community-based development and service organizations, along with three last minute additions from Germany and one 11th hour insert from an NGO that Adrien Roux of the Alliance/ACORN in France and I had met several days ago. They were there for an …