Summary of events in the videos: James O'Keefe III (25) and Hannah Giles (20) dressed as a pimp and prostitute. This was their method -
1) Ask A Question: What if a “prostitute” and her alleged law school boyfriend walk into ACORN seeking housing for an underage brothel to fund his future congressional campaign?
2) Do Background Research:
Learn as much about ACORN housing procedures and protocol as possible.
History of ACORN and their effect on the United States
3) Construct a Hypothesis: ACORN is corrupt and it is in their nature to promote and disguise illegal behavior.
4) Experiment: Baltimore, DC, Brooklyn, San Bernardino, and…
5) Analyze and draw a conclusion.
(the above was written by Hannah Giles on 9/15/09 after videos of the 4th city were released)
Part 1:
I saw the videos when they first came out. I think that I was maybe a day behind. The Baltimore ones were first.
In the videos James and Hannah told the ACORN workers that in addition to Hannah working at the house as a prostitute the pair were planning on bringing 12-13 under age El Salvedorean girls to work as prostitutes also. Instead of verbalizing shock and outrage, or even an moment of ungaurded disgust, the ACORN employee suggested that they claim up to 3 of them as dependents on the falsified tax forms she was already working on.
I was horrified. Despite the fact that I knew that the girls mentioned by the pair were completely fictitious I couldn't help but think of all the REAL girls who are traded into sexual slavery every day around the globe and here in the United States. Before my eyes, I saw a woman who wasn't playing games, who believed that these girls existed and would be coming to her town and instead of suggesting to Hannah and James that they not bring the girls over, or calling the police, she told Hannah and James to claim three as dependents, but not more than that because it'll raise a red flag. From Baltimore it only got worse. DC, Brooklyn, NY, San Bernardino all were willing to aide these two in their attempts to 1) defraud the government and 2) cover up the importation of little girls to work as sex workers at this house which ACORN was helping Hannah get.
San Diego was worst of all (if that's possible.) The ACORN worker claimed to be a lawyer in Mexico. When he was told about the girls he wasn't very moved by the information. James asked where should they have the girls cross the border, "Tijuana or somewhere more inland?" "Tijuana." "Why?" James asked. "Because I have contacts there," the man replied.
It literally makes me sick to think of people who are willing to stand by when they come face-to-face with those who would injure and abuse little girls (or anyone) and then help them along in the process. That was my first reaction. Pure, gut-wrenching, horror and sadness and anger. I began to wonder, "How can this happen? Would I do the same thing if I were in their shoes?"
My conclusion was that there was a complete absence of an idea of personal responsibility on the part of the ACORN workers. Personal responsibility works internally – "I’m not going to do something. I’m going to restrain myself. Because I’m going to be held accountable for my actions." When you’re thinking all the time, “I’m going to be held accountable for MY ACTIONS” whether that be by myself, by my family, by society, or by God you behave in a certain way. You analyze everything you do. "How do my actions affect people? How does is affect and reflect on me?" When you, alternately, grow up and are ingrained with a victim mindset, whether you believe you are a victim, all women are victims, poor people are victims – your actions become irrelevant at worst and of nominal importance at best. Because nothing a victim has done or could do would have stopped them from being victimized. It’s the fault of the perpetrator.
The ACORN workers were faced with a conundrum. They were confronted by people working in an illegal business who had been denied the opportunity to get a housing loan. James and Hannah were therefore victims. Then they were confronted with the idea of victims in the underage girls James and Hannah said they were bringing over. The ACORN workers had a choice – who’s advocate would they be? Would they protect and help the victims right in front of them (who would also serve to add to the numbers they needed and would therefore be part of the incentive progam set up by ACORN)? Or the ACTUAL victims, a dozen underage girls being brought from a foreign country into a brothel where they would be sold into sex slavery. In EVERY case ACORN sided with the “victim” in front of them.
Hand in hand with this "victim" ideology is one of political correctness gone terribly awry. We are now told that, with a few specific exceptions, we cannot tell anyone they are wrong. One would have assumed that child slavery was one of those things you could call someone on the carpet for. But on at least one occasion an ACORN worker said she wouldn't do it (not because it was wrong, but because it was RISKY) but that "you wouldn't listen anyway." What happened to ‘be the change you want to see in the world’? If they believe that no one will listen when they speak, that nothing they do will affect anyone, then why were they even at ACORN in the first place?
Perhaps all those ACORN people simply lack any kind of moral compass.
- Corruption in government
(- Media complicity?)
