ACORN is nuts...

Or is it just Bertha Lewis...

Despite the supposed detachment of the state-run media, people on the ground- you know, real people- have seen the videos. They have stood, mouths gaping wide as the ACORN workers didn't bat an eyelash at the story of a prostitute bringing in a troupe of underage illegals to begin a brothel. No problem using my tax money to brutalize children, commit tax fraud or advise a person on how to break the law. No crime actually occurred, you say? While these people were spouting such gems as, "Yeah, there's a way to get around paying taxes. Just don't file a return!" they were being paid tax money. Your money. My money.

Paid by the government while working to defraud the government. Cloward and Piven would be so proud!

Now, I am writing my blog pretty early in the newsday, so I may not be up on the most current opinion Bertha Lewis has chosen to take. She may be calling the attorney general of Louisiana a liar over the assertion that the Rathkye brothers actually stole 5 million instead of the 1 million we believed before. She may be discussing the release of ACORNs [ahem] thorough three day investigation into its voter registration fraud allegations. She may be back on the attack of the two people who ripped open the rotten wound that is ACORN, or she may have gone back to thanking them for exposing the "isolated corruption". Who knows what that kooky lady is gonna say next? One thing does seem consistent, though. Bertha Lewis is pissed. The more I see this woman, she keeps angrily repeating the same script, with greater and greater ire looking more and more like a person not only out of touch with the America that funds her organization, but out of touch with Earth as well.

She alleges that, as with the allegations of voter registration fraud for which they have faced charges in 14 different states, these videos only expose a "couple of bad seeds" in an otherwise noble organization. U-huh, right.

But, is ACORN really even a organization whose "public" goal is noble. ACORN claims that one of its intentions is to help low income families get home financing. Is that really wise? When I was growing up [Keep in mind, I am only 30 so my childhood wasn't really THAT long ago.], it was the middle Reagan years. The economic blow-back from the disaster that was the Carter years was still in full effect. My parents bought their home, with excellent credit, at an interest rate in the low to mid TEENS. My husband and I worked for half a decade to correct credit that was damaged by youthful stupidity and a bad divorce before felt deserved to purchase our first home. With the down payment and closing costs, it cost us every penny we had. And we were proud to have achieved that first piece of the American dream. We aren't upper income by far. Hell, we're barely middle income, but we would not have traded the pride we felt at our accomplishment for anything. We had worked our way up. We paid our bills on time. In the words of our broker, we were "well-qualified".

I don't understand what pride can be garnered from being given anything. The ease with which success is achieved certainly doesn't behoove the holder to strive to maintain it. I contend that, just the opposite, it sets up a mentality of entitlement where those who have not expect to be carried indefinitely. Pride comes from achievement not entitlement.

Did the sub-prime crisis teach us nothing about self-regulation? Are we so incapable of being honest with ourselves about what we truly deserve and have earned that we cannot end our love affair with credit? So few are willing to do the hard work, deny impulses and use some self restraint. Getting out of this recession is going to hurt. For those of us who are going to do it without government aid, it is going to hurt alot. Do we have the intestinal fortitude as a nation to dig in?

Maybe ACORN should make that one of their goals...