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I have been a community organizer. I left a full time job to work for free in my community for three years, pulling together neighbors, government, and nonprofits to create a fiercely-needed community center in my town.

I have felt great pride about our accomplishments with this project, and felt that the financial sacrifice I made in the salary I lost was well worth it. For the first time, we have a legitimate library in my little town. Our children have safe, creative, embracive places to go after school. Neighbors have a place to meet neighbors, and we have a swath of green in the middle of a fairly tightly packed residential neighborhood that hosts everything from Little League to pick-up soccer games on the weekend.

I drive or walk by this center every day, as it is half a block away from my house. There are few things that I've done in my life that feel like they have even close to such a tangible and lasting meaning.

There are a lot of things that I could have done with the money I would have earned had I not left my paying job. My graduate degree could have been paid off, or the remaining debt on our house. We could have afforded the kinds of travel that my husband and I dream of on slow Sunday afternoons. Or I could have had a far different kitty to start my own business than I have, allowing me to move forward far more quickly towards my own version of the small-business-owning American dream.

Giving that up was, to me, worth it. And I recognize that it pales in comparison to the lifetimes that many people spend doing this kind of volunteer work.

But according to Sarah Palin and her scriptwriters, it was an exercise in pointlessness.

In her speech at the Republican National Convention last night, Governor Palin, in a dig about Barack Obama's step away from a high paying position at a law firm into the trenches of inner city community building, stated, "I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a "community organiser", except that you have actual responsibilities."

To say that I am insulted by this statement doesn't even begin to cover my rage. This country and the world have benefitted from Americans who have chosen to step away from the rewards of lucrative careers into working for free or for minute salaries to make their communities, and communities around the world, safer, stronger, more functional, and more vibrant.

How dare she? How dare she attack those who choose to give of themselves?

These are true American values, Ms. Palin. Family and community values where people roll up their sleeves and take responsibility for fixing what is broken in our communities.

These are the kinds of responsibilities we can be proud of.

What you took on in your tenure as mayor of Wasilla included an attempt to ban books from the library, firing those on the town staff who didn't agree with you or didn't support your mayoral campaign, and leaving the town $20 million in long term debt as you moved forward to your new responsibilities as governor.

For shame.