Letter to the Editor:

To the Editor FYI;   
http://www.lairdandrobin.org/2011/04/monahan-brothers-walk-from-coast-to.html
 
I will be glad to do an interview at your request. 
Laird Monahan 651 239 5812 or email g.laird.m@gmail.com
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Letter to the Editor:  (or OpEd)

Move to Amend, www.movetoamend.org  is a coalition of more than 50 organizations promoting the passage of an amendment to the Constitution to abolish corporate personhood.   Corporate personhood is the notion that is reaffirmed and embodied in the Supreme Court’s “Citizens United” decision, allowing corporations all the protections of the Constitution.

The Citizens United v Federal Elections Commission decision on January 21st 2010, was just the latest insult on the sovereignty of American citizens.  The term corporate person originated in 1886 in another Supreme Court decision in which the Union Pacific railroad used the 14th Amendment and its’ “Equal protection clause” as a defense in a taxation case v Santa Clara County in California.  The headnotes of that case contain the precedent setting language that, for the sake of the 14th Amendment, corporations are considered legal persons.

I wish to point out that a Constitutional Amendment requires two thirds majority vote in the House and Senate and ratification by 3/4ths of the States.  The 14th Amendment was originally used to grant black males the right to vote.  Another noteworthy Constitutional Amendment gave women the right to vote.  It took 80 years before its’ ratification was completed.  Corporate personhood was granted by judicial fiat without any consent by Congressional or public voice what-so-ever.

Our Constitution has, over the years, been attacked multiple times, incrementally squeezing the interpretation of that august and hallowed document to the narrowest of interpretations.  The result limits the participation and access to the legislative process to all but the rich and powerful.  True representation of “We the People” in our government has been usurped by the corporate elite.
 
The language of the Declaration of Independence,(“We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator with unalienable rights among which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  Governments are instituted among men and derive their just powers from the consent of the governed.”) implicit in the constitution from the beginning, has been all but lost with the “Citizens United” decision.

We take note of and strongly defend the notion of the corporate entity in our economy.  There is no better way yet devised to aggregate private funds for public good.  But the founding fathers, all wealthy men, had an intense fear of corporate power and never mentioned the word anywhere in the Constitution.

What a Constitutional amendment, abolishing corporate personhood, would do is not a cure all in its’ own right but the restoration of the dominion of We the People over corporations. 

With the reestablishment of citizen sovereignty, corporations would again be regulated without fear that the laws governing corporate behavior could be overturned.  Lobbying would be restored to its original purpose of clarifying to the Congressional representatives and educating the public about the merits of legislation and the benefits to the public.  Laws and regulations would be enacted on the basis of their benefit to the public and not on how much money the affected industry had contributed to the campaign funds of the sponsoring legislators.

  

While the long term goal of Move to Amend is a Constitutional Amendment, several short-term, achievable, goals are available: 

• ·         Election and voting reform including the total elimination of any form of electronic voting or tabulating to restore the integrity of the election and the people’s faith in their ballot.
• ·         Publically funded elections.
• ·         Passage of a resolution supporting a Constitutional Amendment abolishing corporate personhood.  (This resolution can be passed among any group of people in any social environment including church groups, unions, fraternal organizations, school and university clubs,  city councils and county boards of commissioners)  This resolution has already been passed in several city councils across the country and at least one county Board of Commissioners.
• ·         When any candidate is running for public office, including state legislative district candidates and Congressional and Senatorial candidates, activist, organized citizens should confront those candidates at their public rallies and speaking events and tell them, so all can hear, that if they accept money from corporate interests they have violated their trust with the people and they do NOT represent We the People but are servants of the corporation that made the contribution.  If they will promise not to accept any money from corporations, they have earned our vote and deserve our wholehearted support.  We should be prepared to go the extra mile to back those candidates because of their uphill fight against the rich and powerful. 

 

We can do this.  We must do this for ourselves, our children and our country.  It is the DUTY of every citizen to defend the Constitution from all enemies, foreign and domestic.  The momentum of change is in the air.  We can meet the New World Order on our own terms and win.  We are the new beginning that we have been dreaming about.  We stand arm in arm with the young people occupying and expressing their rage in cities around the world.

Move to Amend www.movetoamend.org is a huge website with many ways to assist individuals that would like to become active and organize in their own community.  Check it out and sign the petition.

Do you want Democracy?  End corporate rule!
Laird Monahan

Posted via email from glairdm's posterous