Breaking News: ACORN Is Not Evil

by Josie Raymond · 2010-01-08 08:31:00 UTC
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ACORN didn't tie your shoelaces together. Or steal your girlfriend. Or tape over Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure. In fact, ACORN, the community organizing group sometimes know as the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or as the right's go-to punching bag, was just certified squeaky clean by the federal government.

According to a study by the Congressional Research Service, published on page A24 of the New York Times but thankfully given a lot of play in a great piece on The Nation's website, ACORN has not broken any laws in the last five years. Not that the group hasn't been investigated. Through October 2009, ACORN has been investigated at the federal, state and local level 46 times. On the flip side, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and other federal agencies have awarded money to ACORN 48 times since 2005, and ACORN has used that money lawfully each and every time. Only about 10% of ACORN's budget comes from federal funds anyway, but having one's name dragged through the mud has a way of depleting outside funding too.

Yes, there have been bad apples, like the ACORN representatives who falsified voter registrations, and the ones who counseled covert Republican operatives portraying a prostitute and a pimp. And bad apples like Glenn Beck have used them for political capital. But ACORN is simply a community group trying to help people going through tough times -- exactly how the organization describes itself.

Bertha Lewis, the CEO since 2008, is on a mission to reestablish the public trust. It may be an uphill battle, since most Americans won't hear news of this report, but at least she has a sense of humor; she recently began a speech with the line, "Some of you may know me as the biggest threat to democracy in America."

Read Bertha Lewis's guest posts on Change.org here and here.

Photo credit: NewsHour

Josie Raymond has reported from the streets of the South Bronx, written for several magazines that folded (not her fault) and fixed thousands of typos.
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