Chicago--The front of the “Perspective” section of the Sunday, September 07, 2008 Chicago Tribune featured an interview entitled “Q&A with Tio Hardiman: Organizing a Response to the GOP”.  In it, former community organizer Tio Hardiman defends community organizing.

About community organizers, he admits “some have organized against particular candidates”.

This is a shocking admission.  Most nonprofit organizations that employ community organizers have tax exempt status.  To engage in overtly political actions such as taking part in a campaign to support or oppose a candidate is blatantly illegal.  Such an organization could, and should, lose their nonprofit status.

To be fair to Hardiman, he refers to this as something others have done and does not admit to breaking laws himself.

I am not shocked that this sort of illegal activity happens; I am just shocked that somebody so openly admits that it happens.  Since I have worked in the Chicago nonprofit community for many years, I know how politicized things can be.  Politicians rely on social service organizations to reach into communities and those organizations rely on politicians to access tax payer dollars.  It is a circle of corruption. 

This is the corruption world that spawned Barack Obama.  This is why I fear the corrupt world he will lead us into as President of the United States.