Standing on Principle

Principles are a good thing.  Right?  I think of this question in terms of people standing on their beliefs, and never backing down to the Powers That Be - even at tremendous cost.  Ever.  It strikes me as noble, even holy, at times.  And I have wanted to be that person; I've wanted to be the kind of someone who believes so firmly in an idea that I'm unwilling to accept anything less than its complete fulfillment.

Organizing has turned that thought on its head.

Instead of seeing the polarities of "yes" and "no", organizing brings up the notion of "perhaps". In this training, I'm beginning to see that people who are unwilling to compromise from an ideal may very well end up with nothing.  I've heard stories in these last days of training about leaders who get to a point very very close to victory...and then they get angry about The Principle Of The Thing, and they lose it altogether.  The especially troubling thing for me about that is the fact that when this happens in community organizing, the impact is not on the one person who refuses to deal; instead, the whole community feels it.  Whether the issue is the construction of an interstate highway in Houston or inner-city housing in Chicago, the lessons are the same. Change is cultivated in relationship.  And the give-and-take nature of relationship often means that no one gets exactly the thing that they want - although it might just be very close.