2026 Cleveland Heights Democracy Day

Council Chambers, Cleveland Heights (Ohio) City Hall

June 4, 2026

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vkowR5ZiyQ&t=63s

A Summary of Subjects and Themes Addressed

US House Joint Resolution 54, the We The People Amendment to the US Constitution, has 75 cosponsors. It becomes more relevant and essential every day as the US now faces the prospect of personhood for Artificially Intelligent bots.
Hyperscale data center threats include exponential increases in local communities' electric bills and wastewater contamination with PFAS and other "forever chemicals."
Recent New York Times coverage of Buckley v. Valeo and Bloomberg Law coverage of an ACLU lawsuit in which the judge upheld the actual votes of corporations and other "artificial entities" in a 2024 Fenwick, Delaware election.
As poverty continues to increase, Americans have a responsibility to speak out against inequality and to vote.
Corporations claiming first amendment rights and the Supreme Court classifying money as a form of "speech" has led to the destruction of water-purifying wetlands and poisonous algal blooms in Lake Erie, among many other environmental harms.
The advantages of paying taxes confers myriad benefits on individuals and communities, including public schools, public libraries, trash collection, functioning roads, bridges and sewer systems, and many others.
Song performed with ukulele accompaniment: "Corporations Are Human," © Tom Neilson.
Selected portions of President George Washington's Farewell Address were quoted, including: "The basis of our political systems is the right of the people to make and to alter their constitutions of government. But the Constitution which at any time exists, till changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole people, is sacredly obligatory upon all."
A member of Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ) explained that SURJ organizes white people to join the battle against white supremacy, and stressed that white people also have much to gain in fighting to end racism.
A recent trip to England, including a viewing of the Magna Carta, inspired one Cleveland Heights resident to an even greater appreciation of the Statue of Liberty and its timeless words "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free..."
Song performed with guitar accompaniment: "How We Can Sleep at Night," © 2011 Lou & Peter Berryman
A member of Healthcare for all Ohioans detailed several of the ways that rather than Healthcare for all Americans, we have healthcare as social murder.
The speaker posits that debt-based money endangers democratic governance. He supports the American Monetary Reform Act of 2026, which would improve and stabilize the Nation’s economy by restoring Congress’s power to create and regulate money.
"Happy 250th Birthday, America. What's Next?" To create a functioning democracy, Congress must use its constitutionally granted power to change the Supreme Court.
Recent local issues illustrate the need for democratic action at the local level: the sudden, secret closure of the Cleveland State University radio station; the Heights Libraries' dismantling of the arts center in the former Coventry School; and NEORSD's actions to turn Horseshoe Lake and Lower Lake into wetland areas.

Individual Testimonies

Testimony of Greg Coleridge

Exactly one month from today marks the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

Few documents have captured the world's imagination in announcing the creation of a new nation free from centralized rule with such clarity, inspiration and power. Though it reflected, in part, the sexism and racism of the time by the nation’s “Founders” (rich men of property) by stating that only "men are created equal” and describing Indigenous people as "merciless Indian Savages," its listing of 27 grievances was a potent justification for self-determination. It was a declaration to take decisive action for systemic change -- not to reform the monarchy, reduce the lethal force of the Redcoats, or to create a "Code of Conduct" for the Governors of the 13 colonies -- many of which were chartered corporations like the Massachusetts Bay Company that ran the economic and political affairs for the King.

The Declaration also stated that when a long series of government actions seeks tyranny against people, “it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”

We face multiple crises today that were unimaginable 250 years ago.

Journalist Chris Hedges summarizes one of them: "The crisis we face is the result of a four-decade-long, slow-motion corporate coup that's rendered the citizens impotent, left us without any authentic democratic institutions and allowed corporate and military power to become omnipotent."

We must Declare our Independence from corporate rule, which is inextricably connected to plutocratic rule (by the superrich) and autocratic rule (by the Trump regime).

Cleveland Heights has declared its collective solidarity against corporate rule for 13 years. The grassroots-driven Issue 32 passed with a 77% yes vote in 2013. It called for ending constitutional rights for corporate entities and for ending money being defined as free speech, which has corrupted our entire political system. These are core elements of the We the People Amendment, HJR54.

Over 700 communities (26 in Ohio) have taken action. More than 800 organizations nation-wide have endorsed. More than 530,000 individuals have supporters. HJR54 has 75 House co-sponsors.

You will hear from testifiers this evening share their modern-day list of grievances and threats to democracy – and solutions, including support for the We the People Amendment.

I wish to lift up the threat of Artificial Intelligence. The numerous dangers of AI include cybersecurity, societal stability, economic structures, and existential human safety. The greatest peril, however, may be AI gaining constitutional “personhood.” Powerful corporate entities, which are shielded by constitutional rights to avoid public accountability, are strong supporters. Constitutional “personhood” for AI is yet another way for corporate entities to avoid potential liabilities caused by their own “intelligent” creations.

If the Citizens United Supreme Court decision was reversed tomorrow, it would have no bearing on corporate AI personhood since corporate constitutional rights include more than just abolishing corporate rights to spend money in elections.

The route to authentic democracy goes beyond ending the Trump Regime, electing better people, passing better laws, reversing Citizen United, or overturning the Supreme Court decision that equates money as free speech. Quite frankly, it’s even more than enacting the We the People Amendment. It’s building a democracy movement to make our Constitution authentically democratic.

True democracy means not only independence from concentrated power – from the government or corporate entities. It means being interdependent – inner and outer. Inner interdependence is developing the ability to reflect in ways that pays attention, slows down, pauses judgement, looks deeply, speaks respectfully and listens carefully. Outer interdependence is acting as if we are all connected – all people and all living things. We must work across divisions and differences to care for one another and for the natural world.

There is no way to democracy. Democracy is the way. This includes enacting the We the People Amendment. But that’s only one step toward authentic systemic interdependent change – of our institutions and ourselves.

Testimony of Anne Caruso

Hyperscale Data Centers in Ohio Test the Strength of Our Democracy

The growth of hyperscale data centers in Ohio provides both good and bad
examples of our democracy.

Data Centers are not new because hospitals and other large facilities
typically have had their own small data centers. What’s new are
hyperscale data centers serving companies like Amazon, Google, and
those doing Bitcoin mining which use enough energy to power 30,000 to
50,000 homes and use anywhere from 1 million to 5 million gallons of water
a day. Their water and energy demands threaten to draw down community
supplies while the air, water, noise and light pollution they produce
seriously threaten the health of residents and animals for a 5 mile radius.

An important health threat is the fact that all but 1 of the 191 data centers
operating in Ohio now send their waste water to nearby municipal water
treatment plants which are not equipped to filter out the forever chemicals -
PFAS - and biocides resulting from data center processing. So it’s likely the
drinking water for those communities is polluted with these chemicals. I say
likely because the Ohio EPA only regulates substances they identify for
regulation. PFAS will not be regulated in Ohio until 2029. In 4 years, these
communities will face tens of millions of dollars in upgrades to their water
treatment facilities because they permitted this use.

When hyperscale data centers came into Ohio in 2024, big companies and
local officials entered into permits which required NDA - Non Disclosure
Agreements - required by the companies. Sometimes the NDA was with
local elected officials and sometimes it was with key employees like a
County Economic Development Executive. The latter case allowed elected
officials to deny they had information when the public came asking for it.
Many times the public didn’t know hyperscale data centers were even
coming to their communities because there were no public information
meetings or public input opportunities about them. Imagine buying your
dream home in a new development, moving in, and finding out a
hyperscale data center would be built less than 1000 feet from your new
home.

Because serious concerns like these have fallen on deaf ears, Ohioans,
especially in Adams, our Appalachian county, have organized to put a
citizen’s initiative on the November ballot to ban data centers using over 25
megawatts a month. This all volunteer organization called Conserve Ohio is
encouraging everyone to download the petition from their website, to collect
at least 10 signatures and to send them back to them. Their goal is
413,000 signatures by July 1st. They will need signatures from around the state. Their website is www.conserveohio.com.

This ballot initiative has caught the attention of the Ohio Legislature which
resulted in the creation of the Ohio House and Senate Select Committee
on Data Centers which has scheduled 5 hearings. 3 have recently occurred
including one on June 1, 2026 allowing public comment. In it the
committee heard from Ohioans who are experts on some of the issues
surrounding hyperscale data centers as well as from Ohioans with
experience living near them or who will be living near one scheduled to be
built in their communities.

These hearings can be seen live or on replay on the Ohio Channel. I
strongly recommend listening to the June 1, 2026 hearing. I don’t have
enough time here to list all the concerns from the public, but I’ll mention a
few. Many testified about the lack of transparency and the
unresponsiveness of their county commissioners and other local officials to
their concerns. A striking fact brought out by some is that the creation of
this select committee should have happened 2 years ago when
hyperscale data centers entered Ohio. As some citizens stated, the job of
legislators is to protect the residents of Ohio from harm and not to prioritize
profits and the use of community resources by out of state billionaires and
mega companies. As one witness told the committee in so many words,
you have not done your job so now we are forced to do it for you.

Ohio is one of 25 States whose Constitution allows citizens to directly place
initiatives on the ballot if enough verified signatures are collected by the
required deadline. This is one example that Democracy is still alive in Ohio.
The lack of transparency and disregard for the health and welfare of Ohio
constituents in allowing these monstrous projects near homes, schools,
and our natural treasures is an alarming example of the opposite.

Sources:

Link to the 2026 Ohio House and Senate Select Committee on Data
Centers hearings aired on the Ohio Channel. If you are watching live the
hearing will be on the screen. To view replays, tap “ View past screens”

above the live (or blank) screen. https://ohiochannel.org/live/ohio-house-
and-senate-select-committees-on-data-centers

Testimony of Carla Rautenberg

Corporations Ain’t People and Money Ain’t Speech

On May 6 of this year, The New York Times published an explainer of a 50-year-old Supreme Court case that Move to Amend activists have been trying to tell the public about since Citizens United in 2010. Nice to see that the Times has gotten around to the 1976 Buckley v. Valeo decision, in which the U.S. Supreme Court first declared that money is speech. The Supremes concluded that since the FirstAmendment forbids limiting speech, it also outlaws limiting campaign spending. The Buckley decision enjoyed the passionate support of not only billionaire David Koch and conservative attorney John Bolton, but also the ACLU and the NAACP.

MONEY IS POWERFUL. AND SPEECH IS POWERFUL. BUT OF COURSE THAT DOES NOT MEAN THAT MONEY IS SPEECH.
THAT’S LIKE SAYING BAD DEEDS ARE POWERFUL AND GOOD DEEDS ARE POWERFUL, SO BAD DEEDS ARE GOOD DEEDS. Uh, NO.

John Bolton, ex-national security advisor to Trump, told the Times: “We’ve never had anything like Trump, that’s for sure, but the fact is that big money is more evenly divided than people think, and I think it’s especially true now.”

The paper continues, “Campaign finance records back Mr. Bolton up. A Times analysis showed a vigorous foray by Democrats into anonymous big-money donations in 2024, helping give former Vice President Kamala Harris a financial edge over Mr. Trump.”

That is just exactly the point. When all the politicians serve the interests of less than one percent of the population, democracy becomes a malicious joke. Whyever would I think The New York Times might point that out?

But I guess we’re fortunate that the Times, however belatedly, deigned to cover Buckley v. Valeo at all. In a May 26, 2026 story headlined “Corporations Can Vote in Some Delaware Elections, Judge Says.” Bloomberg Law did’nt even mention Santa Clara v. Southern Pacific Railroad, the 1886 Supreme Court case that birthed the corporate personhood shiboleth.

In 2024, Delaware’s population was 1,051,917 human beings, but the tiny state has twice as many registered corporations: 2.1 million.

When, following a charter change, the tiny coastal town of Fenwick permitted corporations, partnerships, trusts, limited liability companies, and other “artificial entities” to vote in their most
recent election, it was a bridge too far for the ACLU of Delaware, which filed suit in federal district court. They lost: the judge upheld the voting rights of corporations and other artificial entities.”

According to WHYY News, “Andrew Bernstein, the ACLU lawyer in the case...is weighing an appeal to the Delaware Supreme Court. We believe voting should be for the people, not corporations.” Howrefreshing!

Perhaps the ACLU has gained some wisdom since it supported Buckley v. Valeo in 1976 and Citizens United in 2010. Re: Money as speech...Ira Glasser, the former head of the A.C.L.U. said “I loved the whole idea, because my position was: It had to be made clear that this was not a liberal versus conservative issue, that this is an issue of speech that affected everybody.”

Absolutely. It affects 99.9 percent of the population very negatively, to the great advantage of the 0.1%.

And it makes plain the lie that we live in a democratic republic. Until we amend the Constitution to establish that corporations are not people and money is not speech, in this country democracy will remain just another American Dream.

Sources:
New York Times, May 6, 2026
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/06/us/politics/buckley-case-supreme-court-billionaires.html
Bloomberg Law, May 26, 2026
https://archive.is/OmpxX#selection-1581.0-1581.60
WHYY, June 3, 2026
https://whyy.org/articles/delaware-fenwick-island-voting-nonhumans-superior-court-aclu/
US Census Bureau, Quick Facts Delaware
https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/DE/PST045224

Testimony of Kathy Flora

Thank you , Mayor and Council for hearing us today. My name is Kathy Flora .

I am a member of the League of Women Voters , which has said that “one thing is abundantly clear. Our country is in a Constitutional Crisis.”
Our voices have been severely muted by the Citizens United ruling and we have learned since that time that money in politics actually equals corruption , not speech . It has distorted our constitution and the government’s adherence to it .
The Executive branch has exceeded its constitutional authority and has failed to faithfully execute or abide by the law .

The balance of power called for in the constitution has been undermined or disregarded completely .

The Administration has unilaterally imposed Tariffs , blocked funds from appropriated uses in order to spend at will , used emergency powers to remove inspectors general , agency officials and even entire Departments without congressional oversight.

We have been dragged into a war in violation of the law , to profit the donor class .
The Executive Branch has ordered the extrajudicial destruction of boats and the killing of fishermen in international waters . We have not been told why or who this benefits .

Immigration and Customs Enforcement has violated 96 court orders across 74 cases, in just one state, in one month.

The Administration has solicited and accepted income from domestic entities for personal use and has used taxpayer funds , the Justice Department and the Federal apparatus for personal vendettas .

All of this has resulted in unlawful Federal interference in state elections to maintain power .

The corruption inherent with money in politics has distorted the law and our constitution . It is now a crisis .

The PEOPLE’S voices have been vastly overpowered by that money. We have a duty to each other to stay informed as best we can by speaking up, NOT staying silent. And that includes our precious right to vote.

Testimony of Catalina Wagers

Good evening,

My name is Catalina Wagers. Thank you for the opportunity to speak.
I am here to talk about what happens when corporations gain more power and the EPA has less authority—because we are already feeling the effects here in Ohio.

Let’s start with water.

We all know that Lake Erie is one of our greatest natural resources. But in 2014, people in Toledo were told not to drink the water. For several days, hundreds of thousands of residents could not use their tap water because of toxic algal blooms in Lake Erie.
That crisis was driven in part by pollution flowing downstream—from rivers, creeks, and wetlands that are meant to help protect the lake. For years, the EPA used the Clean Water Act to protect wetlands and small streams because they filter pollution before it spreads. But the Supreme Court narrowed those protections.

In Sackett v. EPA, (a 5-4 decision) the Court ruled that many wetlands are no longer protected under federal law unless they have a continuous surface connection to certain bodies of water.

The impact of this decision is serious:
More wetlands can be filled in
More pollution can flow downstream
Less protection for bodies of water like Lake Erie

Now let’s talk about climate change.
Climate change is not a future problem—Climate change is here and now. The EPA once had authority to limit climate pollution. But the Supreme Court has restricted that authority.

In West Virginia v. EPA, (a 6-3 decision) the Court ruled that the EPA cannot implement changes to reduce emissions from power plants without clear authorization from Congress. A Congress that is made up of elected officials that are more likely to vote on special interests than the will of the people who elected them.

There are also ongoing legal and policy debates about the future of federal climate regulation, including challenges to the scientific and legal foundations used to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. These developments could make existing protections more limited or more vulnerable over time.

And if that were not enough, in Loper Bright v. Raimondo, (a 6-2 decision with Jackson recusing from the vote) the Court ruled that judges are no longer required to defer to the expertise of federal agencies when laws are unclear.

That means:
Scientific expertise may carry less weight
Courts have greater authority to interpret laws
Corporations have more opportunities to challenge regulations
Large corporations and billionaires can afford those legal battles. Communities and individuals cannot.

Why does this matter for democracy?
These decisions did not happen in a vacuum. Since Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, corporations have expanded First Amendment protections to spend unlimited money independently in elections. That money shapes laws. It shapes courts. It shapes who and what is protected—and who and what is not.

We are seeing the consequences in the growing risks to our environment and public health.

I will close with this thought:

The EPA was created to protect people and the natural world. The Supreme Court decisions have increasingly limited their ability to act—even when harm is clear. The health of our environment—and the health of our children and future generations – should not depend on how much money a corporation can spend in court.

In 2013, when Cleveland Heights residents voted for a constitutional amendment to overturn key ideas from Citizens United, they were right to fear the dangers of corporate influence in shaping a future that is good for them, not for the citizens of this country.

The examples I shared with you today, reaffirm the voters’ demand for a constitutional amendment, that clearly states that only human beings—not corporations—have constitutional rights and that money is not speech.

Thank you for listening.

Testimony of Francis Chiappa

Performance of “Corporations are Human,” by Tom Neilson

corporations are human I just found out
what being human is all about
Citizens United ancestral line
their corporate gene is different from mine

well the science is in there's nothing to doubt
they never get cancer, gonorrhea or gout
Encephalitis, cystitis, neuropathy
colitis hepatitis A B and C
fibrosis, sclerosis and heart, disease
halitosis, cirrhosis, and a pair of bad knees
they don't need a dentist or protection withsex
but they live forever it's not that complex
corporations are human I just found out
what being human is all about
Citizens United ancestral line
their corporate gene is different from mine

people have faces and socks in a drawer
corporations are faceless here and offshore
if you think corporations bought free speech before
now that they're human they'll buy even more
yeah their money has free speech to me quite a shock
cuz I never heard my money talk
when a corporation has a colonoscopy
then I'll believe they're human like me

Testimony of Robin Koslen

I started my day pretty early for a retired woman. I was in the car by 7:30 and I saw a lot of interesting things.

My garbage was out and the truck was driving down my street. I love garbage day. Maybe I love it so much because I used to live in Idaho City, Idaho. In Idaho City once a week, my husband and I would drive to the dump. We paid our dump fee and got rid of the week’s garbage. Let me tell you, this was never my favorite activity and in the summer, it ranked as one of my least favorites things because it reeked.. But because i pay taxes, low and behold, each and every week, that truck comes to pick the stinky stuff up.

Then I had to stop because there was a school bus in front of me picking up private school kids. Our CHUH schools are not in session, but those buses are still running. Not my favorite way to spend my tax money, but it is convenient for many of my neighbors. I’m hoping they appreciate their tax dollars being spent to convenience them.

Crews were out filling pot holes and repaving streets. I guess I could pay to have my portion of my street worked on. I know some libertarians think that’s how things should work. I don’t. I appreciate those roads being fixed and know that my taxes were partially responsible. I did not see any fires this morning or any crimes being committed .i am happy about that. I don’t want to defund the police. I want to live in a safe community and realize that some protection has costs associated with them. I know my home owners insurance would be higher if I did not live in a city with a professional fire department. My taxes again at work.

I also did not see any children begging for food. I’m grateful for that as I’ve traveled to many countries where such cites are relatively routine. Kids can get free lunches here, even in the summer because we pay for it. We also provide food assistance to families in need through the SNAP program. I Hurray for taxes.

My grandchildren, the kids next door and down the street are pretty smart, great readers and thinkers. I’m assuming the public schools they attend are part of the reason they’ve got such incredible skills. Yep, I’ll pay for that too.

This afternoon, after I finish writing this, I am going to Cumberland Pool, or my happy place. I do not have a membership to a private pool nor have I ever wanted one. I enjoy swimming and engaging with my fellow neighbors at the pool my taxes pay for.

I’m not going to the library today, because I went yesterday. My book group has a picking party each June. A criteria for selecting a book is that it must be available in sufficient quantities at the library. Sometimes we have to wait because the book is so popular, but our library has never failed us. Again my taxes at work.

I did not die from COVID. I think the vaccine I received may be why. It did cost the government some cash to create those vaccines. Pretty happy I helped pay for them.

I wish I paid more in taxes as long as I could specify where the taxes would go There are some expenditures that i would rather not be paying for,. I would like all of my neighbors to have good health insurance. I hate that our public school system is laying off educators. There are countries in the world experiencing famine , droughts and disease. Sometimes the problems they are experiencing now are because my country messed them over in the past. I wish I were providing more help to them through my taxes.

I wish everyone was willing to pay their fair share of taxes. I am unhappy that some really rich folks have figured out how to avoid joining the rest of us in contributing to the common good. That unhappiness does not mean I am absolved of doing my part. It does mean we should have laws would require the musks, trumps of our country to contribute too.

Clearly this is just a beginner’s guide to what we pay for with taxes.Working together we are able to enjoy nice things. I’m saying this loud and clear, taxes benefit us all in different ways.

The allure that we can have all of the above and more without taxes is a fantasy.

Testimony of Mary Kelsey

I have a few lines from a speech that is read aloud each year in the United States Senate. This was written 250 years ago by our first president, George Washington.

“The basis of our political systems is the right of the people
to make and to alter their constitutions of government.
But the Constitution which at any time exists,
until changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole people,
is sacredly obligatory upon all.
The very idea
of the power and the right of the people to establish government
presupposes the duty of every individual
to obey the established government.
All obstructions to the execution of the laws,
… are destructive of this fundamental principle …

They serve to organize faction, to give it an artificial and extraordinary
force—

to put in the place of the delegated will of the nation
the will of a party;

often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community;

and, according to the alternate triumphs of different parties,

to make the public administration the mirror
of the ill concerted and incongruous projects of faction,

rather than the organ of consistent and wholesome plans
digested by common councils and modified by mutual interests.

However combinations or associations of [faction]
may now and then answer popular ends,

they are likely, in the course of time and things,

to become potent engines
by which cunning, ambitious,
and unprincipled men

will be enabled to subvert the power of the people

and to usurp for themselves the reins of government,

destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to
unjust dominion.

Washington goes on to warn us “in the most solemn manner
against the baneful effects of the spirit of party, generally.
This spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable from our nature,
having its root in the strongest passions of the human mind.
…
it is certain there will always be enough of that spirit for every
[beneficial] purpose.
And there being constant danger of excess, the effort ought to be,
by force of public opinion, to mitigate and assuage it.
A fire not to be quenched,
it demands a uniform vigilance
to prevent its bursting into a flame,
lest instead of warming it should consume.”

Testimony of Suzanne Zilber

Hello, my name is Suzanne Zilber and my pronouns are she/her. I have lived in
Cleveland Heights for just short of 5 years. I am going to speak to how PAC
money distorts election outcomes – specifically elections that I was actively
involved with, through my organization. Please bear with me while I share some
context before going into the details.

I was raised in the reformed Jewish tradition and was steeped in the Holocaust
history. I am deeply alarmed at the authoritarian consolidation of power that has
occurred in the US now and what that may look like in our future if we don’t halt
It.

My primary political home is Showing Up for Racial Justice, or SURJ, at both the
national and local levels. The local chapter is SURJ Northeast Ohio. The goal of
SURJ is to bring more white people into the fights for racial and economic justice.

We recognize that structural and strategic racism are central to economic
injustice for the majority US population. Structural racism has also always been
undermining our access to a functional democracy, which has been so recently
demonstrated with the Supreme Court decision to allow even more
gerrymandering. We want to end white support for white supremacy. Black
leaders have been calling on white allies since the civil rights movement to
“organize your own people”. White people are 60% of the US population, have
the most wealth and many white people benefit from white supremacy - we must
take responsibility for dismantling it. The white working class would benefit
from uniting with multiracial working class people to fight the capitalist elite and
white supremacy.

So what is SURJ doing to that end?

At the national level, SURJ focuses on very specific electoral phone banks in
partnership with other left leaning organizations. We engage white working class
voters in deep conversation and research shows that our approach is the most
effective at moving voters toward our candidates. Locally, we partner on issues
work with BIPOC led organizations and engage in disruptive actions towards
corporations collaborating with ICE.

In the spring of 2024, you would find me sitting at my desk, papers piled in front
of me, my two screens with multiple windows open, and my cheap earphones,
talking to voters in St. Louis and the Bronx. SURJ national held phone banks to
help several progressive Black candidates and “House Squad members” win
their primaries. Two of these candidates were Jamaal Bowman and Cori Bush. I
learned later that Bowman’s race was the most expensive house race in US
history at that time and here is why.

At that time, the progressive movement was concerned about the intensity of
Israeli retaliation against Palestinian citizens, after the October 7 th Hammas attack
on Israelis. Our candidates, Bowman and Bush both demanded a ceasefire in
Gaza.

AIPAC – the American Israel Public Affairs Committee is an American lobbying
group that advocates for pro-Israel policies to the United States. They did not like
the demand for a ceasefire. Their Political Action Committee raises and spends
money directly on behalf of candidates who support its pro-Israel agenda.

AIPAC poured record sums of money into ousting both of these incumbents from
office in their primaries and our candidates did lose.

One has to wonder if the people of St. Louis and the Bronx got candidates that
were really going to look after their needs and interests, when a political group
focused on the welfare of Israel gets to determine who serves them.

When AIPAC got involved in these campaigns, their goal wasn’t simply to remove
2 votes from Congress, but rather to show all legislators that if they did not toe
AIPAC’s line, their political careers could be destroyed. AIPAC’s goal is to make it
too costly for politicians to concede to progressive movement demands around
Israel.

Authoritarian consolidation happens, in part, by raising the costs dramatically on people and institutions that do not fall in line with the regime.

Authoritarian policies are intended to cause tremendous pain to those who do not
cooperate. Even now, we are in a time when many businesses – even elite CEOs –
hate the tariffs and increased oil prices but don’t speak out against them
because, if they did, they would face huge costs.

I understand that the Cleveland Heights City Council is mindful of the costs that
might be imposed on Cleveland Heights if it takes action to resist an authoritarian
federal government.

I hope that the council can find actions that resist the further consolidation of
authoritarian power in which our collective gain will be greater than the harms
Imposed.

Thank you for listening.

Testimony of Bob Kloos

I am Bob Kloos. I live in Royal Heights, on Kingston Road.

I will wear this shirt for our annual July 4 th Parade that includes Kingston and
Queenston, Princeton and Canterbury Roads.

We have good reason to believe it might be our 75th annual parade this year.

I am grateful for this opportunity to speak on behalf of democracy at a time when our administration in DC appears to understand it differently than I do.

“Why is one man allowed to do so much harm?”

Just days ago, I returned from a 6-week pilgrimage to some of the oldest cities and sites of England.

I had read a Bernard Cornwell series of more than a dozen books
depicting how many small kingdoms became Engeland, what made that union possible, and what people a thousand years ago sacrificed and fought for to keep their land, their autonomy, and faith in their new nation.

I saw one of five extant copies of the Magna Carta in Salisbury, England.

The Magna Carta was not unique; other legal documents of its time, both in England and beyond, made broadly similar statements of rights and limitations on the powers of the
Crown.

Indeed, some things are self-evident.

The charter became part of English political life and was typically, though not always, renewed by each monarch in turn. In the room adjacent to the cathedral
where the document was securely displayed and dimly lit, a placard read:
“When it was written in 1215, Magna Carta offered protection to certain people in need.
Today, we recognize that human rights belong to everyone,
including refugees fleeing war, violence, conflict, or persecution
while they seek safety in another country.”

Less than a week ago I was sailing home.

I got up early in the morning because the ship’s navigator had said we would be passing under the Verrazano Bridge at about 3:30am. I set my alarm. When I stepped out the door onto the Observation Deck, I should not have been surprised to see nearly a hundred fellow passengers. One gentleman was pouring champagne as a bell was sounding on a buoy nearby.

Then I heard a three-year-old ask his father: “Why is she green?”
I turned to see what the lad was pointing at Lady Liberty. Illuminated and resolute, right where she landed nearly 150 years ago. What a thrill. What an honor,
to witness what countless others had strained to see.

“The New Colossus” is a sonnet by American poet Emma Lazarus (1849–1887).
She wrote the poem in 1883 to raise money for the construction of a pedestal for the Statue of Liberty. In 1903, the poem was cast onto a bronze plaque
and mounted inside the pedestal’s lower level.

It reads . . .

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp,” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

I am a citizen in a country where rights are being denied, killing has gone unpunished,
and laws broken repeatedly by persons elected to be public servants.
And yet, I stand here, unthreatened, healthy and relatively free.

The least I can do is show up, speak up, and rally others within earshot to pledge to defend that which all of us cherish – freedom to pursue life, liberty, and happiness.

Testimony of Deborah Van Kleef

All of our bedrooms are gilded and burnished
With every conceivable luxury furnished
Like Tiffany cauldrons of custom-made candy
And lead crystal snifters of hundred-year brandy
With eiderdown pillows of thousand count satin
On twelve-poster beds with a view of Manhattan
A soothing and comforting sight, so
Why do you people keep asking us
How we can sleep at night?

We’ve diamonds the size of split peas on our slippers
And nightshirts of lace with titanium zippers
Security guards always lurking here somewhere
And shrinks who descend at the hint of a nightmare
With classical chamber musicians who linger
And calmative drugs at the snap of a finger
All much to the sandman’s delight, so
Why do you people keep asking us
How we can sleep at night?

With dreams of our limousine fleets holding steady
And jets on the tarmac all fueled up and ready
And thousand-foot yachts for our White House connection
And choppers to whisk us in any direction
While even our house of accountants relaxes
They’ve worked it all out so we barely pay taxes
Our future is peaceful and bright, so
Why do you people keep asking us
How we can sleep at night?

And thanks to the coming of privatization
They’ll no longer nick us for free education
We won’t have to spring for the old and the lazy
Or pop for the health of the wretched and crazy
We’re calmer today than we’ve been throughout history
So why you would ask us this now is a mystery
Why do you people keep asking us
How we can sleep at night, oh
Why do you people keep asking us
How we can sleep at night?

*Two verses & bridge cut for Democracy Day 2026 performance by Deborah Van Kleef

Testimony of Brian Houlehan

I have been thinking about the phrases ”economic violence” and “social murder”. In the realm of health care, these ideas manifest themselves in multiple ways, but they can be easily demonstrated by the number of people that die every year because they can’t afford to see a doctor (estimates are from 45-60 thousand a year)and the savings every year if the nation adopted a national health insurance plan ($500 billion a year). These numbers exist because the medical industrial complex needs to extract their profits from the well-being of all of us to satisfy the tenants of unfettered capitalism-the quarterly earnings of health insurance and pharmaceutical companies , along with for profit hospitals and medical device makers. Don’t be fooled by our so called non-profit hospitals. They operate as if they were for profit companies, so they fall into this paradigm as well.

The reason we cannot have a rational healthcare system like most comparable nations in the world is because corporations have all the leverage over government due to Supreme Court rulings, which many of you are aware of since you are here tonight. Their money is considered free speech, making it easy for them to control the political economy of our nation.

As a Move to Amend member, abolishing corporate personhood is the goal. Until we get there, many states like Maine, Michigan, Montana and Hawaii are attacking corporate spending in elections by attempting to limit giving to political action committees by corporations, preempting Supreme Court review since they are not challenging spending as speech. The Montana plan also would end corporate spending by revising state corporate charter laws that they believe the Supreme Court would not reverse because it has previously never ruled against state control of these laws.

I also believe in a Congress that uses their constitutional authority to regulate the courts, which they never exercise because they are controlled by the spending of their corporate donors. Theoretically, they could impeach corrupt court members, expand the members on the court, limit their terms, and pass “court stripping” legislation, that would forbid the courts from ruling in certain areas, like a future national health insurance plan, which this present court would probably search for a pretext to void.

I still believe that the passage of a 28th Amendment is the best remedy to ensure that we can elect a Congress that would take any of these steps.

Until then, “social murder” will continue unabated as we allow ultra capitalist “rent seeking” to predominate as the de facto operating system of our healthcare economy.

Testimony of Steve Norris

My name is Steve Norris, and I'm here today to connect money and corporate rule.
Last year's federal tax cuts sounded like a relief to many Americans. But the numbers tell a different story. Interest payments on the federal debt are now projected to surpass what the United States spends on Medicare. Let that sink in: we are spending more servicing debt than keeping our elderly healthy. And that pressure doesn't stay in Washington. It trickles down to us.

Right here at the local level, we see it in tax abatements handed out to corporations as incentives to build here, investments that often fail to deliver the promised jobs and tax revenue while shifting the burden to homeowners and small businesses. We see it in school budgets squeezed year after year. In deferred road repairs. In libraries cutting hours. In emergency services stretched thin. This is austerity. Not as an abstract concept, but as the lived reality of our community.

And here is where the story gets more complicated. The money that governments borrow? Most of it is created by private banks as loans, at interest, for profit. Each dollar that flows through our public institutions was generally first conjured into existence to serve someone else's bottom line. We borrow what could be ours. We pay interest on what we, as a society, could create. That is not a law of nature. It is a policy choice.

I also want to name the billions of dollars that corporations and billionaires are pouring into elections. They are not doing this out of civic spirit. They are doing it to protect and expand the systems that concentrate wealth and power in their hands. And it's working. The more money flows into politics, the harder it becomes to challenge the monetary arrangements, the tax structures, and the budget priorities that keep ordinary people and local governments like ours in a permanent squeeze.

But it does not have to be this way.

There is a piece of federal legislation called the American Monetary Reform Act. It proposes something straightforward but transformative: that the government should create money as a public utility, not leave that power almost exclusively in the hands of private banks. Under this framework, governments would no longer need to rely so heavily on borrowing to fund public goods. The first use of newly created money would go towards the public rather than to private profit. That includes meaningful revenue sharing with state and local governments, resources that could fund our schools, our roads, our health services, without the constant threat of austerity.

This is one piece of a larger puzzle. We also need to address the concentration of political power directly. The We the People Act and the work of Move to Amend are aimed at ending the constitutional fiction that corporations have the same rights as human beings, the legal framework that allows unlimited money to flood our elections and override the will of actual humans.

These are not small reforms. But neither is the problem small. We are talking about escaping a cycle of austerity, reclaiming democratic sovereignty, and ensuring that the resources of this nation serve its people, rather than a shrinking class of the extraordinarily wealthy.

I urge you to look into the American Monetary Reform Act and the We the People Act. I urge you to ask hard questions about where money comes from, who benefits from our borrowing, and what it would mean to do things differently.

The people of this community deserve governments that can actually govern. That means having the resources and the political independence to do so.

Thank you.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/us-debt-exceeds-gdp-first-time-since-wwii/
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/cleveland-heights-university-heights-city-232022541.html
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/downtown-sinkhole-repaired-two-months-162645689.html
https://www.cleveland.com/open/2025/12/ohios-libraries-could-face-hard-choices-next-year-after-2025-budget-cuts.html
https://signalcleveland.org/cuyahoga-county-proposes-these-health-social-service-cuts/
https://www.monetaryalliance.org/outreach-toolkit/
https://www.movetoamend.org/amendment

Testimony of Linda Striefsky

Democracy Day 2026

Happy Birthday, United States of America!

What’s next?

This year, we celebrate the 250th anniversary of our country, the United States of America. I have been reflecting on the state of our democracy. And, specifically, how we – each one of us - help our nation continue on the quest for that “more perfect union” that our founders envisioned.

We know that the founders did not launch a perfect union. Many of them recognized that. For one thing, they left outside their idea of a “more perfect union” much of the populace – it’s easier to say who was included. White men with property. But it also was easier for the founding few to accept that “compromise”, since they were among the privileged few who benefitted from it.

Fortunately, we have moved past affording rights only to those privileged few, but we have done so in fits and starts. To this day, the sharing of full enjoyment of rights is certainly not equal. People and groups with power very, very seldom give any power up voluntarily. We go two steps forward, one step back. Three steps forward, one and a half steps back. There are many examples of this, but the rise of Jim Crow laws after Reconstruction is one example. More recently, the state-by-state erosion of reproductive rights and of voting rights protections for minority communities are two more.

If you, like me, are dismayed, literally on a daily basis, by large and small assaults on our constitutional rights, then you may wonder, as do I, where are we headed? Is there any hope for our so-called democracy?

I choose to say “yes”. We have seen other times in our history when reforms were thwarted by a president or governor, on the executive level, or by various levels of legislatures, or by the courts. They trade off sometimes in raining on the parade of constitutional rights. But we have seen voters and other branches of government push back, resulting in further progress towards that more perfect union. Our system of checks and balances is designed for this pulling and tugging.

To focus on one specific example of recent assaults, the US Supreme Court decided, in Louisiana v Callais, to gut a core element of the Voting Rights Act. That decision, in my opinion, ignores the obvious evidence all around us that racism is alive and well. It’s phenomenally disappointing, but not surprising, from this Republican dominated court.

But, you may ask, what can we do about it.

We as voters don’t have the power to vote out the Supreme Court Justices. But the Congress has the power to change the Supreme Court. There could be laws passed to change the authority or the composition or the term of office for the members of the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court has not always had 9 members. The number was changed by Congress after the Civil War because of concerns that the Court would undermine the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments. There also were other changes due to concerns about the Court disregarding the laws Congress passed to support those constitutional amendments, and the Supreme Court got the message. They saw the handwriting on the wall, that they had gone too far. We appear to be overdue for some such changes to the Supreme Court now.

We, the voters, don’t elect the US Supreme Court justices, but we have the power to elect representative and senators who will support legislation that re-imposes the Voting Rights Act and goes beyond that to further strengthen voting rights. In the midterm elections in November, the control of both the House and the Senate can be changed. The legislature also can change the Supreme Court.

If you agree with me that you want change like that, that you want to see voting rights expanded, not threatened – and I expect we all could recite a dozen other changes we would like, on the federal and state level – then you must do your part to make the change happen

So,, let’s focus here on what YOU can do.

First, you can vote for people who will, in turn, vote for the changes you want.

Second, you should encourage those around you - family, friends, neighbors – to likewise vote.

Third, you should invest some of your time and energy supporting those candidates who will help get you closer to your vision of a more perfect union.

Every vote matters. Every vote is valuable. If you doubt that your vote is valuable, consider the large number of people, trying very hard, to take the right to vote away from many of us. If our votes were not valuable, there would not be so many schemes pushed forth, not only year after year, but week after week, to make it harder for us to vote. And the very practice of change after change after change is a method to discourage people from voting.

If you want our democracy to continue into the future, into your future and the future of your children, please exercise your right to vote, in every election. It is the foundation for all your other rights.

Testimony of Marty Gelfand

Good evening Mr. Mayor, Members of Council, Law Director, and fellow Cleveland Heights Residents. I am Marty Gelfand of Meadowbrook Boulevard. I’d like to say a few words about our democratic institutions, focusing on some local issues I’ve observed recently where I believe the institutions fell short. I am here to ask that you not fall short in representing us, the people, when issues come up where those who run or influence our democratic institutions stray from properly serving us.
By “democratic institutions,” I include bodies such this, our Cleveland Heights government, run by people we elect, and similar governmental bodies we elect at the county, state, and federal levels. But I also mean agencies at all these levels run by appointees. The federal Internal Revenue Service (IRS), for example, or state universities, or agencies of local government like our planning commission or zoning board are democratic institutions. Still others are under multi-governmental oversight, such as our regional transit and sewer district boards. I also include private organizations that exist to serve public charitable, educational, or religious purposes and thus qualify for tax exemptions under section 501(c)(3) of the federal IRS Code.
Recently, I have been disappointed by the actions of some of these democratic institutions. Until recently, Cleveland Heights had an arts hub operating out of the Coventry PEACE Campus where Coventry School used to be. Our public library district owns the building but the arts hub consisted of many public oriented nonprofits such as Artful, Lake Erie Ink, Future Heights, and Reaching Heights that leased the space as tenants. Unfortunately, the former director of our library district decided she no longer wanted that building or its public serving organizations on our library’s property and ended their leases. The organizations, with much public support, attempted to purchase the building and reorganize it as its own non-profit. But the director and the library board refused to entertain any other option but to shutter the building.

The City of Cleveland Heights either would not or could not do anything to save the arts hub and the Coventry PEACE Campus. The organizations that employed our residents and did much to enhance the quality of life of our community were displaced from their hub and disbursed to other places, in some cases with great difficulty.

In another example, for 50 years Northeast Ohio had a student-run, publicly staffed radio station, WCSB 89.3 FM, operating out of the campus of Cleveland State University (CSU). WCSB operated 24/7 with a diversity of staff, musical genres, and public affairs-oriented shows. On October 3 last year, CSU and the non-profit Ideastream, which runs public radio, public television, and classical music stations in the area, unveiled an agreement made in private in which Ideastream would immediately seize control of WCSB and install its own programming, literally locking out the people who ran the station up until then. CSU and Ideastream went so far as to call the police to have the station management and staff forcibly removed from the radio station. To justify its theft and closure of this community institution, it set up jazz programming and promised to have some student internships set up. I like jazz but WCSB already offered jazz and many other popular music genres that people wanted and listened to. And WCSB already offered ample opportunities for students to learn how to run and operate a radio station as it had done for 50 years, far more than Ideastream could hope to.

A third example of an anti-democratic work in progress is the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District’s attempt to take our Shaker Lakes away from the people of Cleveland, Cleveland Heights, and Shaker Heights. These lakes were built by the Shakers some 200 years ago. Though man-made, they have become part of our natural environment, are appreciated by the people and wildlife who live here and visit our region, and anchor the Shaker Lakes Nature Center. They are also part of our history and are graced with a historic marker on the North Woodland bridge between Cleveland Heights and Shaker Heights. The marker commemorates the Shaker Lakes and the actions that the people of Cleveland Heights and Shaker Heights took some 60 years ago when our past democratic institutions were intent on paving over the Shaker Lakes and much of the rest of our communities for freeways connecting I-490 near Downtown Cleveland with I-271 in Beachwood and the Shoreway near Bratenahl with I-480 in Maple Heights. The people rose up then and those democratic institutions were forced to listen and back down.

Does the sewer district have a point in wanting to take down the dam and destroy the lakes? They say it will make it easier to operate the sewer. But as I’ve said to City Council in the past and I’ll repeat here: if you’re a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. Similarly, if you’re a sewer district, every problem looks like a sewer. Taking down our Shaker Lakes to make it easier for the sewer district to run their sewer, well, stinks.

Democracy Day is about money and politics. I know that each of you took money to run for office. So did I as a 5-time candidate, 3 times for a South Euclid City Council seat I won, and 2 other times for offices I didn’t win. Unless you’re independently wealthy, you must raise and spend money to run and win your elections. But taking money doesn’t mean there’s a quid pro quo. Taking money should never be a quid pro quo. You make decisions on what’s best for your constituents, the people, period.

As public servants, you often face difficult questions. On this Democracy Day, I ask that you look at each issue, especially the difficult ones, with an eye toward supporting the people. Question the experts, question your law director. We elected you, not the people who run the democratic institutions who don’t always act in a democratic way or a way that supports the people. And remember, lawyers are trained to analyze problems from many perspectives, and to represent their clients. So when the law director says you have to do something a certain way, ask how they’ve analyzed the problem from the other angles and in support of their client – our city, which is comprised of the people of our city. We elected you to make good decisions that support the people. So please keep your eyes, and the bureaucrats, focused on doing that.

Ohio

Do you like this post?