Agenda for ACTION

All show no substance.

Whenever you see an organization concerned about "social justice" you need to look closely.

ACTION is an affiliate of the Gamaliel Foundation of Chicago, Illinois, which prides itself on one of its most prominent organizers, Barack Obama.

The Gamaliel Foundation works to establish affiliates like ACTION all around the United States with the objective of community organizing, using the methods of Saul Alinsky. Other buzz words used by these groups include "capacity building," and "citizen empowerment."

While there are local people involved, there is a massive organization driving such organizations around the country, as evidenced by outside organizers who come into a community to work.

One of those outside organizers is the previous Executive Director of ACTION, Kirk Noden who is now the Executive Director of the Mahoning Valley Organizing Collaborative. He was trained in Chicago, went to Birmingham, England to organize there, and then came to Youngstown to head ACTION.

While the local people who work in ACTION are well intended and good people, they are part of a larger national and international network of left leaning organizations.

As a nonprofit, tax exempt organization, it is limited in its ability to participate in partisan politics, but its actions favor the objectives of the Democrat Party. You will rarely if ever see a Republican official at any of these events, but frequent guests and sometime participants are a host of local, state and national Democrat Party officials.

At one time, ACTION had a lot of support in the community, when it had substantive and productive goals. But that support has fallen both as a result of its agenda driven from the top down and the lack of support for some of its left leaning objectives.

The problems discussed in the ACTION meeting: violence in the schools, violence in the streets, poor education systems are the result of a very serious breakdown of the moral and cultural fiber of our society, not necessarily the government.

These problems cannnot be fixed by government, but doing so is what is normally addressed by churches.

Government can only react to the criminal behavior of members of ours society who do not have the values instilled in them that a Church teaches.

The organizations in ACTION would be more effective and produce greater benefit to society by working to teach the gospel and other values to those in the community who cause the problems this organization seems to blame on government and other members of society.

Reducing the out of wedlock births, and strengthening the family should be the primary concern.

This group supports No on Issue 2 - yea this is one liberal socialist group who wants to spend other peoples' money. They are part of the Dumbocrat Robin Hood crowd.

The real answer to solving Ohio's problems is:

***** YES on ISSUE 2 *****

Typical Youngstown (little Chicago) talk...always expecting a free lunch.

Well said, thinker, especially the last part about the crucial difference strong families make. We need to catch up to the rest of the civilized world and have nationwide universal healthcare; paid maternity/paternity/family leaves; quality, affordable child care; and children allowances for all families with children. Abolition of childhood poverty should be at the top of any moral agenda for our society.

“We speculated that police wouldn’t do anything because he was just another black man murdered,” she said."

Not much justice for the white side either . . .. Jamar Houser is yet to be brought to trial and soon it will be two years since he executed Angeline Fimognari at St. Dominics Church .

I agree with all comments so far, esp. "the thinker(s')". Thanks for the heads-up on ACTION's ties to Chicago and Saul Alinsky.

May I add that he originally "preyed" on Churches in the Chicago area and deceived well-meaning Christians into believing his propoganda. This is one of many ways the Saul Alinskys of this world managed to infiltrate into the Christian Church and destroy it and its true message. And they have managed to continue his methods to this very day.

He wasn't the original infiltrator. There was a massive influx of his type into our government, our institutions of higher learning (i.e. Harvard, which was founded on Christian principles but has since become antichristian in its teachings) in 1913- the same year THEIR Federal Reserve Act was made intro LAW and THEIR League of Nations was founded....

It's amazing how black pastors are permitted and empowered to beat the drums form O'Bama and Democrats, but white pastors had better not support any conservative causes or they are threatened with the separation of church-state baloney.

To Attis:

Any serious student of the American culture and poverty in the United States cannot ignore the facts from Census Bureau data that the segment of our population with the highest rate of poverty [37%] is single parent families which compares very unfavorably to about 7% for two biological parent families.

The out of wedlock birth rate in the United States is almost 50% with the rate among Black Americans at 80%. The children of these families cost the American taxpayers over $100 billion per year in subsidies from 14 major federal programs.

It doesn't take much thinking to understand why these families are in poverty. How can a mother work and take care of a child at the same time? Any parent can tell you how difficult that would be.

Even Barack Obama, who says one thing and does another, recognized the importance of the family in his book, The Audacity of Hope when he wrote: “[C]hildren living with single mothers are five times more likely to be poor than children in two-parent households. Children in single-parent homes are also more likely to drop out of school and become teen parents, even when income is factored out. And the evidence suggests that on average, children who live with their biological mother and father do better than those who live in stepfamilies or with cohabiting partners.... In light of these facts, policies that strengthen marriage for those who choose it and that discourage unintended births outside of marriage are sensible goals to pursue.”

If the illegitimate birth rate were reduced to the levels of the 1970's the poverty rate would decline more than with the billions spent on government social welfare programs which finance the irresponsible actions of people who have children and expect others to support them.

The economic problems this country faces are more the result of cultural and moral causes than financial ones. We are having problems funding the safety net social welfare programs because we have fewer and fewer people working to pay into them as a ratio of those receiving them.

Universal health care is a fantasy, it will not reduce health costs, it will increase them. We are headed down the road to the European model, led by Greece and Italy. Politicians like Obama make promises that cannot be kept and the consequences of not having universal single payer health care pale in comparison to what will happen when the country can no longer borrow money as it does now to pay its bills.

If you think we have social pain now, just wait.

Members of groups like ACTION need to open their minds to the possibility that they are misguided and causing the very kind of suffering they are trying to end.

Chicken Wing Macklin smelled a free lunch and could not resist; the perfect union spokesman for Issue 2.

It is a shame leaders like Rev. Macklin decry the state of our cities and how families are breaking down. He is ignoring the mission of the Church to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ. In putting politics first he is abandoning his mission and becoming part of the problem. Time to step back Reverend and reconsider your mission. You are just an agent of the government residing in the pulpit.

thanks for your thoughtful response, Thinker, but do think a bit deeper and look a bit broader than just blame the victim scenarios. Want to know where all the money went? Check out the military industrial complex, something a Republican President gravely warned us about 60 years ago this year. Pursuing the nightmare of an American empire built on military bases and wars without end all over the world is the cause of our economic collapse, just like it was with the Roman empire a few millenia ago. Imagine if we had invested those trillions in families, schools and infrastructure. Uncle Sam has abandoned the children of America and will have to face the consequences of that colossal neglect. Don't blame the single moms.

You guys come up with anything. ACTION became an organization years before Obama was in office. This organization is over 10 years old. Get your facts straight, then try to sway us.... ACTION has done a hell of a lot more for our communities than any of you with your misleading comments. This orginazation is not all black preachers, its also has Cathlic Priests from the area as well........ No coments on them right?????

ThewayIseeit ( 27)
“Never argue with a stupid person for they will only bring
you down to their level and then beat you with experience
This is good to remember as you read what some people say on these pages

Freeatlast, I agree, and Thanks!

To Attis Again:

Dig deeper where?

Who are the victims you say I am blaming? Certainly you do not include in that category individuals who are so irresponsible in life that they will have children without making a commitment in marriage and providing for the well being of their children?

The real victims are the people who pay the bill for the irresponsibility of others like those who have children and do not support them.

What has defense spending have to do with this issue? Again you need to do more study about the spending by our government. The amount of money spent by the federal government on social welfare programs dwarfs any spending on defense. Eisenhower was the President in the 1950's, and his views on the military industrial complex have nothing to do with the level of poverty in the United States in the 21st Century.

When threats to our national interests decrease as they did in the latter years of the Bush Sr. and the entire years of the Clinton Administration, the defense spending decreases. The social welfare costs are always increasing. Check out what is going to happen to Medicare with the over 65 year age group climbing from its present 44 million to 72 million by 2030.

National defense is one of the primary functions of the federal government, with the states providing some assistance by way of National Guard units. But all levels of government; federal, state and local spend on social welfare programs. The spending on Medicaid by the State of Ohio is about 38% of its budget.

And bringing up the Roman Empire!

Those are excuses for the lack of a credible response to my comments.

Politics does and should have strong links to religion. I try to vote with my religion in mind. It pains me when I have to vote for a candidate that is pro-choice, or pro death penalty. Or a war monger. I am against killing, period. These values come from my upbringing and thus my religion. It is absolutely proper for church to discuss politics. If you are trying to change the world, one of the most powerful ways is to vote for what you believe in.

If Jennifer Walker nad her fellow teachers know what is best for the schools, then how come so many of the students are dropping out? Why are so many kids scoring so low on standardized tests?

The fact is that in todays public schools, more money than ever is being spend on education, yet kids are learning less and less every year. This is a direct result of teachers hiding behind unions and tenure and every other excuse in the book to get away from actually doing their job.

Take a look at what has happened in New Orleans since Katrina. The public schools were in shambles, and after the storms Charter schools started to pop up every where. As a result, test scores have sky rocketed in those schools.

As for mixing religon and politics, for centuries people have tried to mix oil and water to no success, so why try religion and politics? Stealhead, you admit you vote based on your religion, lucky for us you are not a skinhead, or a black panther, who knows how you would vote.

I hope the nay sayers are seeing the truth here. Those opposing Issue 2 are running scared, and with good reason.

VOTE YES ON 2!!!!

lol so governor kasich said “get on the bus or get run over?" sounds like facism to me... wow guys really? did you really elect a fascist republican governor?

"We want to tell the governor to take his bus and shove it"

Where is he shovin' it??

Jesse,
It depends where he is going to shove the bus!

I agree that the victims are the people that are paying for the irresponsible behavior.

When a child is in poverty it is the fault of the parents and no one else.

Thewayiseeit; Did you read the article and first posting. No one said it started after Obama became president.

Do these churches all lose their tax free status???

Them people sure didnt look like they wanted to be there !!!! look at them on video at wkbn.com

The point is, even if I was a Skinhead, etc, I would be trying to further my moral agenda. I am not. I am probably very similar to you. A regular guy. Sooo, if we all vote our conscience and the majority rules, This should be reflected in the government. Why not? The vast majority of people in this country are some flavor of christian, this country was founded on and because of christianity, so this should be represented. If enough of us regular guys vote, the result would be a more moral nation.

If they are tax exempt and non profit --they shouldn't be "picking sides" on issues. Where does their operating mopney come from???

Why shouldn't they pick sides? If a basis of my religion is "no killing", that will be a consideration when I vote. FREEDOM OF SPEECH guarantees the right to express ourselves. Society defends the rights of every wacky group there is to assemble and spout their message (we don't want to hurt the Nazi's feelings or infringe on the rights of a group to protest at funerals!). At least this is a positive thing! If you don't like it, show it by the way you vote.