On Monday the Rev. Dr. Paul Sherry, Director of the Let Justice Roll campaign for a just minimum wage told us that “Poverty Can Be Beaten.” There were three elements to his vision:

1. TRUST that universe is neither neutral nor malevolent on issue of justice. As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., said, “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.”

2. LOVE. Trust frees us to love courageously, and loving relationships forged in the crucible of the struggle for justice transform us.

3. COURAGE TO DARE. As Jim Wallace says, ‘hope is believing in spite of the evidence, and watching the evidence change.’

But what most struck me wasn’t the talk itself, it was a comment he made in the question and answers, “good organizers know not to stretch themselves too thin that they are not effective doing any one thing.” This is a lesson that I think ICPJ needs to wrestle with. How can we both create a community of struggle for justice and have sufficient focus that we can achieve some victories?

I think this is an area where ICPJ can grow, to do more in building community and to find a way to bring more focus on key issues, and I welcome your ideas about how to bring this about.