World's worse off than most realize-Rant 1

Get out of that dither!

Have you noticed? Everybody is in a dither.

While it seems today as if President Obama is the touchstone for constant controversy and strife and uncivil behavior and heartburn conflict, that’s not the case.

It’s the economy, Stupid!

Obama is president and, for some reason, we tend to blame the president in general – and the whole mass of politicos, in particular -- for everything wrong in our collective and individual lives. If the economy was better, if unemployment was higher, if the stock market was on a steady upturn, everything would be peachy.

Obama can be blamed for a room-sized throw rug of ills, from trying to make too many changes in a short amount of time, to thinking just because he got elected he had a mandate for myriad changes, to having priorities for his administration that might not be in the best interest of the entire country at this particular point in time.

But, he can’t be blamed for the ACORN mess. The problems with that so-called, grassroots activist organization, did not start last January when Obama took office. Those same problems that are the gotcha!-craze of the television journalism set today were going on during the eight years of George W. Bush, and the entire administration years of Bill Clinton … and on backward for the entire 30-plus years of the organization.

Getting its start in Little Rock as an offshoot of the NWRO (National Welfare Rights Organization), ACORN started small with incredibly simple and good goals: Provide clothing and furniture to low-income people.

Know what ACORN stands for? Arkansas Community Organization for Reform Now. The name does not exactly paint the picture of the pious rule-breakers seen on TV, now does it?

Face it, folks, ACORN is no different than other do-gooder organizations in the liberal, middle-of-the-road, or conservative camps. Those types of organizations are set up for a certain agenda and have to, unfortunately, hire people. When people are involved in just about any endeavor, personal agendas, foibles and mental faux pas are introduced.

People plus power plus money. Voila! It’s a recipe for deceit and fraud, a grab for personal gain and accolades, and, while some good comes out of such endeavors, the perception of the good can be washed away in a tide of untidy, tawdry revelations.

ACORN’s good works, like those of the Boy Scouts, Red Cross, United Way and other organizations that have great roots and the occasional rotten branch or two, will be forgotten while those that delight in publicly punishing those whom they declare sinners – especially those of a different political ilk.

For those with a political agenda, it’s never enough to weed out the bad apples at the core of any scandal. They have to turn over the entire barrel.

Politics. What an ugly profession.