Kill ACORN, but what about others?

ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, is the nation's largest community organization of low- and moderate-income families, working together for social justice and stronger communities. Alas, ACORN, is the perfect straw man for the right wing hate/attack machine.

The pending legislation to defund ACORN states that it applies "to any organization charged with breaking federal or state election laws, lobbying disclosure laws, campaign finance laws, or filing fraudulent paperwork with any federal or state agency." So, as I understand this, any organization guilty of such malfeasance should be stripped of all federal funding.

ACORN has some pretty high profile company. How about KBR? You know, the notorious Halliburton subsidiary famous for installing faulty wiring in the shower rooms of military quarters in Iraq, resulting in the death by electrocution of several American soldiers. How about Lockheed Martin, Boeing Co., Raytheon, or General Dynamics? These defense contractors all appear on the Federal Contractor Misconduct Database. Lockheed Martin alone has been cited on 50 occasions for financial misconduct totaling $557.2 million since 1995.

I have saved the best for last. Pfizer Inc. and its subsidiary Pharmacia and Upjohn Company, were recently fined an incredible $2.3 billion in the largest health care fraud settlement in the history of the U.S. Department of Justice.

So let's go ahead and defund ACORN; it will undoubtedly disappear, no longer the community organizing threat it is today. But let's also see how well Halliburton, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon, General Dynamics or Pfizer do once the federal dollars disappear. I suspect not too well, and the fact they no longer will be able to provide large campaign donations will, I am sure, in no way influence the impartial wheels of justice. No doubt, the proponents to defund ACORN are simply interested in a fair and just outcome, as am I.

Greg Newlin

Naperville