Importance of Empathy at
Organizing for America,
at the Strategy Session 2010, SF CA
I attended the Strategy Session 2010,
in South San Francisco. There I interviewed Froilan Ramos, Regional
Field Organizer, Organizing For America, CA Congressional Districts 6,
8, 12 about the importance of Empathy at Organizing for America. I also brought up the
topic in the discussion portion of the meeting. Below is the 10
minute section of the discussion.
(Video of the full meeting 1 hr)
Importance of Empathy at Organizing for America, Strategy Session 2010, SF CA
(10 min)
Froilan: What is the role of
empathy in OFA?
defining it as
standing in someone else's shoes
feeling what they are
feeling
gives you a human
connection and can help each other
my catholic
background: is golden rule - do unto others and you would have them do
unto you.
Obama is trying to get
people to empathize with each other
main tool is the
story of Self
talk about why
something is important to us.
the values from
those stories
finding the
commonalities
President wants us to
make personal connections
he is surrounded by
people and purifications
was on conference
call with him and he sounded like one of the people.
important to
humanize our connections with people
He tries to work
with people who are different
he is courageous and
empathizes with people who are not like him
Group
discussion on OFA Problems
Obama spoke a lot
about empathy during the campaign
somehow this has not
come through in his current speeches and pronouncements
he started as an
agent of change but he became a policy wonk.
Group discussion on
OFA Solutions
value of empathy and
re-inject it into how it pursues it's policies
and re-inject it
into OFA
we have a role in
influencing that change
Froilan:
What about Mobilizing people? to do X. Y Z?
I think Empathy is
important in that regard.
Froilan: How could we show more
empathy?
It's a contentious
problem and no easy answerer
get speakers to go
and talk at gatherings; lions club, seniors centers
get people to speak
personally about what happened to them personally
with the war,
health care, etc,
that creates change
in people
Froilan about communicating a
personal story about how something is affecting you personally, we can
do that with letters, forums, speeches at rallies,
Froilan: Lack of bipartisanship?
Edwin: on the
solutions part with empathy, how about on the OFA values list, add
empathy to it. to get the word out about it
Edwin: in terms of
bipartisanship - I went to the republican state convention.
Sat down and interviewed republicans about empathy. I asked what
values are important to you and how do they relate to empathy. It's
a matter of reaching out to republicans and talking to them about
empathy and speaking to that.
Karen: We did that
all during the campaign and I feel like the OFA values of
respect, empower and include, actually are messages of
empathy,
Edwin: There is a
great deal of empathy but how can it be deepened, we're on the right
path it's just how do we deepen it.
Froilan: how to get it out in
public - because there are those stories about empathy
