Some of those community organizers Republicans think are so funny

Republicans at their National Convention, led on by cheerleading Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin, have held community organizers up for ridicule.

With that in mind, it's important to consider some community organizers who have experienced derision from the establishment in the past, but who went on to make changes in the world.

A man named Martin Luther King, organized the black community to demand equal rights.

A woman named Susan B. Anthony organized women to demand women's suffrage.

A man named Mohandas Gandhi organized the men and women in his country to stand against the injustices of British imperialistic occupation.

A woman named Prudence Crandall organized a school, and created the first integrated classroom in the United States.

A man named Thomas Paine inspired colonists to rebel against Britain, and named this country the United States of America. (Yeah, all he did was write a couple of books - one, Common Sense, was a bestseller).

And of course, thousands of nameless, and unthanked community organizers have helped the underserved, and overlooked to achieve justice, healthcare, nutrition, education and social status. These organizers don't often achieve the notoriety, or huge monetary rewards of political or corporate leaders, but their contributions are not something to be laughed at.

McCain's mea culpa

In some ways, John McCain's admission that he voted against the Martin Luther King holiday is more explosive than the Reverend Jeremiah Wright confessing his mistrust of white leadership in America.

But John McCain's admission, in Memphis, at the hotel where MLK was shot, and in front of a highly partisan audience that he had made the vote, and that he was wrong, was nothing, if not courageous.

I don't like McCain. I think he's ill-suited for the job of running this country. I hate his politics.

But we've got to admit that there are few politicians who would have stood where he stood, and said what he said.

What he is saying about race is important. He is saying that we can discover that we are very wrong on an issue, but the first step in correcting it is to admit how wrong we were. Then, it's incumbent of those on the other side of the issue to accept the admission graciously and move the discussion forward from there.

This was not a politically expedient action. There's no way he's going to get large numbers of black voters to cast ballots for him. Try to imagine George Bush doing the same thing, or Hillary Clinton. Impossible to imagine, right.

So, I hope the old man loses desperately in a presidential race against Barack Obama, but I'm willing to pat him on the back for this.