Rudy Giuliani was correct when in his address to the Republican delegates in St. Paul last week he declared that this election is the most important in recent history, and it will be decided by “the people … not the media, not Hollywood celebrities, not anyone else.” He was also correct when he said that Barack Obama got his start in community organizing. He was incorrect, however, and insulting to thousands of people across this country when he characterized that experience as “nada, nothing.”

Barack Obama got his start in public service as a community organizer on the south side of Chicago where he worked with church congregations in highly diverse, blue collar neighborhoods to help them cope with the loss of the still industry. According to an article in The Nation,, his work earned him $13,000 a year and $2000 to buy a car, “a beat-up blue Honda Civic, which Obama drove for the next three years organizing more than twenty congregations to change their neighborhoods.” That work drove his life’s work and his career as a politician. His colleagues described him in glowing terms, saying that he was “a strategist who could turn general problems into specific, winnable issues.” He fought hard and was tested while attempting to change neighborhoods largely forgotten and ignored by much of the mainstream political conversation. Obama never gave up in the face of opposition. He continued to fight for the people on the south side of Chicago to get a shot at the American dream. He is dedicated to the idea that that dream is accessible to all people, not just a privileged few.

Obama’s story should serve as a reminder that Americans can serve their country in as many ways as there are opportunities to do so. John McCain was tested, both physically and emotionally in Hanoi and yes, McCain did put his “country first” time and again, but so did Barack Obama. Obama’s spirit for public service has been tested since his first day as a community organizer when he was twenty-four years old. His dedication to ensuring that the opportunities for achievement and success in this country are available to everyone is how Obama put “country first.” His spirit does not come from serving in the armed forces, but in the vigilant effort to pursue the idea that all people deserve to lead a fulfilling and prosperous life. It lies in the idea that for one man to own seven houses when there are millions who will never own one in their lifetime is unfair, unjust and un-American. It lies in the idea that, as the late Senator Paul Wellstone said, “We all do better when we all do better.”

When Giuliani ignited the chorus of laughter at Obama’s biography of public service and pursuit of the American dream—a theme which would carry throughout the remainder of the convention—Giuliani and the RNC attendees laughed in the face of millions of Americans living below the poverty line who yearn for the day when they will never again need to choose between paying rent and putting food on the table. They laughed at the woman in Minneapolis who struggles to raise two children alone on two part-time salaries. They laughed at every person in this country who has ever dedicated their life to working for the greater good—including Dr. Martin Luther King, who was a maverick community organizer. The Republicans should be ashamed for engaging in this misguided attack and personally insulting millions of hard-working Americans from the small towns to the big cities around the country. If this is the kind of mentality the Republicans want to bring to the White House, journalist Dr. Hunter S. Thompson’s predictions about the death of the American dream will come to reality and become a permanent fixture of American society.

With this kind of attitude toward those less fortunate, the United States will no longer be a land of opportunity where hard work and determination will lead anyone to a comfortable and successful life. That United States can be replaced by a country where success is given only to those who have earned it by birthright, where those who are already wealthy, powerful and prosperous will continue to be so forever while the rest of us are doomed to perish at their hands. Giuliani is right; this election is the most important election in history.