A Great Day for Freedom

I had the distinct pleasure of hearing and meeting Jeff Clements, author of “Corporations are not People”, at today's event at the University of Hartford, organized and sponsored by Common Cause Connecticut. Thanks and kudos to Kim Hynes, Senior Organizer, Cheri Quickmire, Executive Director, and Prof. Bilal Sekou, Chairman for their work in making this event happen. Mr. Clements spoke before a packed lecture hall, with attendees ranging in age from 18 to 80, students and private citizens alike. It was heartwarming to see so many people concerned and engaged.

Clements spoke in great detail about the Citizens United v. FEC case, and gave a marvelous dissertation on the 40-year lead-up to that decision. I thought I was fairly well-versed in Citizens United, Buckley v. Valeo and other relevant history; I was wrong. I was unaware of former Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell's role in setting us on the path toward corporate personhood and corporate squelching of individual voices in government. Prior to his appointment to the bench, Powell represented the Tobacco Institute. Subsequently, as an adviser to the Chamber of Commerce, he wrote a memorandum titled, “An Attack on the American Free Enterprise System”, essentially a manifesto calling for, and laying the groundwork for, corporations to actively seek and exert greater influence over politics and law. Though familiar with Monsanto Corporation and their role as a polluter, I was unaware of their crusade against Oakhurst Dairy and their fight to retain their right NOT to speak, as it related to product labeling laws. I won't do Mr. Clements the disservice of attempting to reproduce his lecture here. I strongly urge everyone of every political stripe to buy and read “Corporations are not People”; you owe it to yourself as an American.

By far the most important thing I walked away with was a sense of possibility and hope for those interested in amending the Constitution to address the problems created by the Citizens United decision. Clements reminded us of the difficulties faced by Teddy Roosevelt and the Trust Busters in their fight against monied interests and the difficulties faced in passing previous constitutional amendments such as the 19^th Amendment giving women the right to vote. If you think that we as individuals are no match for monied interests, Clements reminded us of the passage of the 17^th Amendment establishing the election of U.S. Senators by popular vote; do you think two-thirds of sitting Senators simply said, “Sure, why not?”

As one who believes we get back from the universe that which we put out to the universe, I also believe we get the government we deserve. Things change when people get angry and active. Colonial Americans were angry about various taxes, but it wasn't until the passage of the Stamp Act in 1765 that they began turning that anger into action. It was passage of the Tea Act in 1773 that led to the Boston Tea Party. Are you glad that we have an EPA, a Clean Air Act and a Clean Water Act? If so, thank Sen. Gaylord Nelson and others who organized the first Earth Day in 1970, a day that saw 20 million people take to streets across America.

To eliminate the purchase of your franchise in our government, we need a new Earth Day. We need people to be aware, angry and active. We need people to follow the advice of Howard Beale in the movie “Network”:

"All I know is that first you've got to get mad. You've got to say, 'I'm a HUMAN BEING, God damn it! My life has VALUE!' So I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window. Open it, and stick your head out, and yell, 'I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!' I want you to get up right now, sit up, go to your windows, open them and stick your head out and yell - 'I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!' Things have got to change. But first, you've gotta get mad!..."