Unless the public discovers the whole truth, ACORN will not become "the most incredible, honorable, respected organization it can be" and those who cover up the whole truth will have themselves to blame.
The ACORN 8 have a noble goal, but will they dare to do what is necessary to attain it?
When I went to the ACORN 8 website (www.acorn8.org), the following message greeted me:
"Thank you for coming to the ACORN 8 website. It's a work in progress, and you'll undoubtedly notice lots of new information and features appearing over the coming days and weeks, so be sure to check back often.
"In the meantime, let's talk for a moment about what we are and are not. We've recently heard a lot of confusion regarding our purpose, and part of the reason we started this website is to clear it up.
"ACORN 8’s purpose is simple: reforming the community activist group known as ACORN. We're not here to participate in rhetoric or mudslinging. Our one and only goal is to stop the systematic fraud and corruption going on inside the leadership of ACORN.
"How?
"First and foremost, we will use this website to post evidence of ACORN fraud and corruption. We're going to provide you with an entire library of documents, pictures, videos, and links to outside sources to back up our claims.
"We will also form a community of people dedicated to reforming ACORN. We'll do this by creating a public forum, a blog where anyone can comment, and a podcast where we interview members of the labor community.
"We've heard from those involved with ACORN that dissension, or even disagreement, seems to be equal to treason, even in the face of obvious problems. We believe that every voice should be heard, and on this site they will be heard. We invite everyone to engage with us so we might get past the name-calling and mudslinging and discuss how we can save this great organization.
"Our beliefs about what must be done to save it may be different, but our purpose is the same: to make ACORN the most incredible, honorable, respected organization it can be. Once we realize that, then we can truly begin fixing what’s wrong.
"Thank you for your attention,
"Marcel Reid
"Chair, ACORN 8
"Executive Board Member, Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now
Alas, the ACORN 8 face a dilemma: telling the whole truth is necessary to attaining their goal, but it also is disillusioning AND dangerous.
Go to www.petitionspot.com/petitions/stopacornfunding.
There, under the title "Stop ACORN's Funding," is this petition:
"I, a citizen of the United States, call on the Senate and the President to take action to prevent The Association Of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) from gaining access to the proposed stimulus package. Furthermore, I call for an immediate investigation into the alleged RICO charges pending against ACORN before they are given access to billions of dollars in taxpayer money.
"The question that I am asking the Senate and President Obama to consider, is how an organization that has pending civil RICO complaints in 11 states can have any access to money contributed by same taxpayers who they have misrepresented and used?
"According [to] the civil RICO complaint 'ACORN has become the victim of its Senior Staff and Executive Committee members through the course of an association-in-fact enterprise and RICO conspiracy. The Defendants have engaged in these acts knowingly and intentionally with a common purpose of controlling ACORN its and its associated/affiliated entities and denying its membership the benefits of any true democratic process. Thus, there appears to be a pattern of misuse and/or conversion of funds, abuse of management authorization, concealment of assets and evidence of management collusion, throughout ACORN and related organizations.'
"ACORN's funding must be stopped until they agree to truth and transparency in their operations and agree to something more than just a ceremonial board of directors.
"Honorable Senators, it is up to you make the right decision and support your constituents and stop the rampant corruption that is being committed with government funds."
ACORN Whistleblower Anita MonCrief's signature is first.
Ms. Reid's signature is second.
As of this writing, there are eight signatures and the last was added 20 hours ago.
Why does a good cause--fixing ACORN--attract so little attention?
Perhaps because the ACORN 8 have not provided enough truth and transparency themselves.
The first sentence of Ms. MonCrief's latest blog reads: "If it were a movie, the title would read 'ACORN Part IV: The Payoff.'"
Ms. MonCrief's first version of that petition spoke of stopping a "payoff" to ACORN, not "funding," and Ms. Reid and two others signed that version of the petition
"Payoff" is a loaded word, but it semms to me to be the right word.
ACORN IS expecting a payoff from the Obama campaign and Congressional Democrats.
ACORN delivered big time for them.
And President Obama lied about his relationship with ACORN, even during the third presidential debate.
Apparently the ACORN 8 decided that the word "payoff" suggested a complicity that at least some of them did not want to suggest.
"Truth and transparency," ACORN 8!
The WHOLE truth.
Including how the liberal media establishment managed the ACORN news to protect its favored candidates and "all the news that's fit to print" was NOT printed.
Unless the public discovers the whole truth, ACORN will not become "the most incredible, honorable, respected organization it can be" and those who cover up the whole truth will have themselves to blame.
For America, ACORN and idealistic Anita MonCrief, that would be a terrible shame.
Michael J. Gaynor has been practicing law in New York since 1973. A former partner at Fulton, Duncombe & Rowe and Gaynor & Bass, he is a solo practitioner admitted to practice in New York state and federal courts and an Association of the Bar of the City of New York member.
Gaynor graduated magna cum laude, with Honors in Social Science, from Hofstra University's New College, and received his J.D. degree from St. John's Law School, where he won the American Jurisprudence Award in Evidence and served as an editor of the Law Review and the St. Thomas More Institute for Legal Research. He wrote on the Pentagon Papers case for the Review and obscenity law for The Catholic Lawyer and edited the Law Review's commentary on significant developments in New York law.
The day after graduating, Gaynor joined the Fulton firm, where he focused on litigation and corporate law. In 1997 Gaynor and Emily Bass formed Gaynor & Bass and then conducted a general legal practice, emphasizing litigation, and represented corporations, individuals and a New York City labor union. Notably, Gaynor & Bass prevailed in the Second Circuit in a seminal copyright infringement case, Tasini v. New York Times, against newspaper and magazine publishers and Lexis-Nexis. The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed, 7 to 2, holding that the copyrights of freelance writers had been infringed when their work was put online without permission or compensation.
Gaynor currently contributes regularly to www.MichNews.com, www.RenewAmerica.com, www.WebCommentary.com, www.PostChronicle.com and www.therealitycheck.org and has contributed to many other websites. He has written extensively on political and religious issues, notably the Terry Schiavo case, the Duke "no rape" case, ACORN and canon law, and appeared as a guest on television and radio. He was acknowledged in Until Proven Innocent, by Stuart Taylor and KC Johnson, and Culture of Corruption, by Michelle Malkin. He appeared on "Your World With Cavuto" to promote an eBay boycott that he initiated and "The World Over With Raymond Arroyo" (EWTN) to discuss the legal implications of the Schiavo case. On October 22, 2008, Gaynor was the first to report that The New York Times had killed an Obama/ACORN expose on which a Times reporter had been working with ACORN whistleblower Anita MonCrief.
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