The Lansing State Journal
reported yesterday that the ACORN office in Lansing, Michigan is closing its doors after receiving a threatening phone call (H/T Eric B. at
Michigan Liberal):
An angry voice mail laced with a racial epithet was the final straw for Carrie Guzman.
An anonymous caller to the local Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, office, left the message. No complaint was filed with police, but the office will close next week...when Guzman, the local ACORN financial justice coordinator, thought she could no longer guarantee a safe working environment for her volunteers, she decided it was time to call it quits.
This was a group that did some damn good. According to the article, last year the Lansing ACORN office:
* Registered 8,500 voters
* Helped 400 low-income families complete tax forms free of charge
* Worked with 200 homeowners in danger of losing homes
Now, thanks to the actions of a handful of ACORN employees in a different location, this office which has no history of malfeasance is closing up shop. The worst part of this story might actually be the comments the article received. Here's a sampling and they look like they come right off the pages of the Free Republic...
~snip~
Lansing is a town hit hard by this recession. There are multiple General Motors plants there (or were.) The unemployment rate is 12.7% which includes East Lansing where there's a major university so the numbers in Lansing proper are probably considerably higher. This is very much a blue-collar town and services like the ones offered by ACORN are in high demand. If this weren't so hurtful to people who really need these services, I would actually laugh at the right wingers who spend so much time and energy railing on ACORN...
~snip~
I believe this and I do think it's laughable that so much of what the right detests is laid at the door of ACORN. That said, a good organization doing good things is now closed. And that makes us all just a bit poorer.
I'm just sayin'...