Is it still We the People?

Here is what the Occupy Wall Street Movement is all about!
by Charlie Leck

Corner almost anyone within the Occupy Wall Street Movement, whether in LA or NYC or MPLS, and ask them what is at the heart of the movement and you’ll get different answers – perhaps not far ranging in their differences, but different enough to make you scratch your head.

In a recent article in YES Magazine, Brooke Jarvis does a good job of summarizing the heart and soul of the movement and what it is protesting and what it is working toward.

“What’s the issue that unites the occupiers and the city they’re occupying? Getting corporate money out of politics.”

So there you are! It all hearkens back to the 2008 Supreme Court decision in Citizens United. Over and over again, I can visualize President Obama looking down on the attending Supreme Court justices in his first State of the Union Address, shaking his head and saying: “With all due respect! With all due respect!”

It was the most significantly incorrect decision by the high court in my life time; and, perhaps, we will one day realize that it was one of the most horrible decisions in history. It really changed the face of democracy in America. But, I’ve written about this before on this blog and I’m not going to do it again.

Here’s what’s significant about the Jarvis article. Not only does he explain this central theme behind all the movements, but he also shows us that the movement is having an impact. In LA, on December 7, the City Council unanimously passed a “resolution calling for a constitutional amendment to end corporate personhood.”

Corporations should not be held, by the Constitution, to have the same rights and guarantees as do the people.

Amen! And, amen!

Now, suddenly, seeing the demonstrations in this light, many of us become supporters of Occupy Wall Street. So, do what you can to support a movement near you. Join the protest line up or give money to the organizers or do both!

I stand no chance as a citizen in America to express my views, hopes and aspirations with the same level of clout when measured against the Target Corporation – or Apple – or 3M – or Exon Mobil – or ATT&T. Please! Don’t insult me by arguing otherwise. My ability to influence is meager when measured against the power that these corporations can wield in effecting elections and votes in Congress.

The U.S. Supreme Court made a devastating mistake in their decision and it has altered the balance of power in America.

It seems no longer to be “we the people,” but it has become “we the big, multi-national businesses of the world.”

“We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution of the United States of America.”

What words writ bold were ever more important in the history of this nation?

That, if you would like to explain it to your friends, is what the Occupy Movement is all about!

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