The God That Worked

Larry Yates

llyates@shentel.net

 

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one step outside the compound,

it is said,

and those who lie in wait

will take us

so

don’t go there



organizing works

organizing works

organizers say

and say and say



and of course it’s true

what could change human behavior

if not

organized and strategic human behavior?



organizing works all right

except on Tuesdays at the dude ranch

at moonrise over pickle factories

and

while reading the letters of

French poets

to their victims



there are exceptions to everything



organizing works

as well as surgery or housework

that is, it’s far more effective

than most people would imagine



it’s a tiresome question,

does organizing work?

so it speaks to the tiresomeness

of organizers

that they spend most of their time

answering it

Yes Yes Yes

look, all those people who say

“you catch more flies with honey”

when you get ready to picket City Hall

say that

because they wish

you were catching flies

instead of

effectively changing behavior

at City Hall



if you go back into their pedigrees

you will find they got where they are

because they or their predecessors organized

for example

the Boston Tea Party

a classic action

even to the politically correct

self-representation as native people



so let’s ask for a general shutting upness

on the lie that organizing doesn’t work



if well enforced

this shutting upness would

free the organizers

from their continual repetition



and from their feelings

of importance

and martyrdom



here’s the truth

organizing is social justice housework

it has its tricks and truths–

start cleaning at the top,

for example –

and the longer you delay

the more you have to do

when you finally start



but it has no glamour at all

that’s why so many organizers drink so much

because they

especially the boys and tomboys

don’t want to face that

they want to be heroes

or at least the facilitators of heroism

not the housekeepers they are



organizing’s interesting

necessary

annoying



it’s something everyone should do

and if everyone did

at last we would be free of organizers

scolding us that it works



make it a regular thing

go to the dentist

check your furnace filter

canvass your community

and move on the issues that come up



then it wouldn’t matter any more

how much it matters

that we exercise solidarity

speak out to each other

live in democracy daily



it wouldn’t matter any more

and I wouldn’t have this itch

any more

to go in the middle of the night

to every organizer’s house

and wall in their front yards

with soft and absorbent

down pillows

which they would have to

get over themselves



now excuse me

I’m going to wander off the compound