Letter to the Editor, Providence Journal - Friday, October 15, 2021

Facebook intentionally 'amplifies division, extremism and polarization,' whistleblower Frances Haugen recently revealed. The damage from this divisive policy is far-reaching. It exposes the danger of granting the First Amendment free-speech rights intended for people to social media companies who control powerful platforms for the speech of actual people. Social media corporations, like other large corporations, have too much economic power and too much political power.

There’s a solution with wide public support — the #WethePeopleAmendment, HJR48, a proposed constitutional amendment that would end the undemocratic Supreme Court-created doctrines that political money equals free speech and that corporations are persons with constitutional rights. Constitutional rights are for human beings.

Seven states, more than 700 communities and 600 organizations are supporting HJR48 which now has 76 cosponsors, including Rep. David Cicilline. I was one of several constituents who met with an aide to Rep. James Langevin asking for his support. He has yet to respond.

The rights of big money should never trump those of people and communities. Facebook’s disturbing harms are just the latest reason why Representative Langevin should cosponsor the We the People Amendment.

Amber Kelley Collins, Wakefield

TESTIMONIES AT SHAKER HEIGHTS, OH, DEMOCRACY DAY

Shaker Heights City Hall and via Zoom | September 13, 2021 

Summary

Those who testified provided examples of how big money in politics and the granting of Constitutional rights to corporate entities are corrupting our democracy:

• Ohio citizens and municipalities are losing their right to self-governance because of the collapse of home rule. This situation is increasingly important because the Ohio General Assembly is more and more the tool of corporate interests, especially the oil and gas industry. A prime example is that municipalities and counties lost the right to ban or levy fees on plastic bags, which are made with a byproduct of the state’s vast fracking interests. Although the ban is set to expire in January 2022, many in the majority want to make the ban permanent, without regard to environmental harms.

• Dark money from 501c4 organizations lines the coffers of candidates and issues up for a vote by Ohioans and the General Assembly. Not only did First Energy dump massive amounts of money into the campaign to push through HB6, but a 501 © 4 organization known as Ohioans for Energy Security sought to squelch the signature collecting effort to put the bill on the ballot and place ads to scare people away from signing signatures or voting for the bill by claiming that the Chinese government would take over our energy grid.

• Nowhere is Big Energy’s power more obvious than in the oil and gas industry’s desire to put lipstick on the pig that is their uncontrollable production of radioactive waste that they call “brine” and promote as a viable substitute for road salt.

If we had a truly representative democracy which demanded full disclosure of the dangers of products and enacted laws that benefit the health, safety, and welfare of people, nature, and future generations, how could this toxic, radioactive waste be spread in our environment? It is the power of corporations which have been granted constitutional rights– and the corrupt officials who advocate policies that benefit them (in this case oil and gas companies) – that allow this to happen. Things are even worse with this issue because there are currently two bills in the legislature – HB 282 and SB 171 – which are designed to grant ‘processed’ oil and gas brine as a‘commodity’.

• County governments and private companies profit from the incarceration, monitoring, and deportation of immigrants legally seeking asylum. Profits are also made through mark-ups on food, clothing, and bedding in jail commissaries; exorbitant fees for phone and video visitation; high immigration bonds that must be paid in their entirety and surcharges on lending services; charges on individuals for remote monitoring and ankle bracelets if they win release; and charter deportation flights or commercial plan tickets if they lose their cases. It is wrong for governments and private companies to profit from inflicting pain and misery.

• Partisan gerrymandering supported by PACs, SuperPACs, and dark money groups has silenced the voices of thousands of Ohio voters – and continues to do so to this day. In the 2010 election, 53 of Ohio’s 99 state House districts were Democratic and 44 were Republican. After the November 2010 election, Ohio lost two House seats due to population loss, and the state legislature shifted to a Republican majority, which redrew maps in 2011 to produce 40 Democratic and 59 Republican districts. This map was ruled unconstitutional because of partisan gerrymandering, and state Republicans were told to redraw the maps in 2019. Despite years of effort by the LWV, Common Cause, and other civic groups, the 5 Republican members of the 7-member redistricting commission produced maps in September 2021 that virtually define gerrymandering, creating a 2/3 majority in both houses.

Is it mere coincidence that 2010 was the year that the Citizens United ruling opened the floodgates for virtually unlimited campaign contributions? It’s not hard to believe that money from PACs, SuperPACs, and dark money groups has inclined the supermajority in the General Assembly, and the majority on the redistricting commission to listen more closely to their big donors – many of them oil and gas interests – than the people of Ohio.

• As gerrymandering and attacks on home rule close off avenues for Ohioans to have their say through legislation, laws are also being instituted to quash protests. SB 33 makes it a felony to commit, aid, or abet any protest at “critical infrastructure” and/or pipelines anywhere in the state. The bill is modeled after ALEC’s “Critical Infrastructure Protection Act” which was intended to suppress the protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline 5+ years ago. Oil and gas interests have decided that the best way to avoid criticism for using disproportionate force is to snuff out the spirit of activists before it can become a flame.

• The use of the “red box” thwarts the intent to prohibit the coordination/communication between campaigns and SuperPACs which was incorporated into the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling to brush aside concerns about the corruption of democracy by unlimited campaign contributions. The red box was used in the campaign of Shontel Brown for the nomination to take the position of former US representative Marcia Fudge. On Ms. Brown’s website there were quotes by three SuperPACs, and next to the quotes was a red box with a link directing the SuperPAC and anyone else to documents about how to fund her campaign. The SuperPACs, funded in large part by people connected to the fossil fuel industry, spent $2 million to amplify the messaging in the quotes. She came from behind to win the nomination.

• The rights of citizens and municipalities may continue to be extinguished unless all corporate constitutional rights are abolished. For example, a lawn care service could refuse to disclose toxic chemicals in their lawn treatments by appealing to its First Amendment right NOT to speak. Efforts by Shaker Heights city council or residents (or those of any another community) to require city inspection of a corporation to protect workers and the environment could be challenged as a violation of that corporation’s Fourth Amendment privacy rights. Efforts to protect homeowners from a company digging or drilling under private homeowners could be challenged in court as a violation of the corporation’s Fifth Amendment takings rights to lost future profits. Efforts to provide preferential treatment of locally owned businesses over a chain store that sends profits outside the community could be challenged in court as a violation of that corporation’s Fourteenth Amendment equal protection rights.

• Ohio pension funds invested with private equity funds are subject to high fees and deliver poor performance. Problems linked to private equity include rising rent and evictions, increasing toll roads, killing a national $15 minimum wage, surprise medical bills, and fueling climate change.

• Employer-based health insurance is not only an issue of the unemployed. Employed people deal with high expenses and the constant changing of health insurance plans. And how much money could the U.S. government and taxpayers save if we could eliminate the overhead of Medicaid and Medicare by allowing a system of Medicare for all who want it or simply universal health care coverage. Although the Affordable Care Act plans will remain an option under the Biden administration, it may be attacked in the future.

All the above point to the loss of representational democracy because of the principle that money is speech and the granting of constitutional rights to corporate entities. Complete testimonies are below. 

Letter to the Editor
Cleveland.com
October 1, 2021

The city of Kent will be holding Democracy Day next week, on Oct. 6. I imagine your first impression of the Democracy Day label is that it may be a holiday to celebrate our form of government because of what the United States has achieved. No! It is not a day of celebration but a day of mourning.

This public hearing before City Council will be about how corporations have abused democracy and taken control of our political and financial lives in the name of capitalism, renamed corporatism. Why? Because corporations control democracy. They are the winners and we are the losers. Capitalism is about making “big and dark money” that is accumulated by the plutocrats at the top and not shared with “we the people.” For more background, read New Yorker journalist Jane Mayer’s books and articles.

Democracy Day is an invitation to listen to how our corporations have acquired personhood and how their money has been ruled a form of speech. If “we the people” don’t act, the next presidential election could further erode our democracy toward an autocracy. For more information on the event, Google “Kent Democracy Day”.

Bill Wilen,

Kent

By Sarah Wittman | Guest columnist
September 3, 2021 | Miami Valley Today (Ohio)
https://www.miamivalleytoday.com/2021/09/03/its-more-than-corporate-money-in-elections/

Friends and Neighbors,

I think we have all known for a long time that our elected officials have forgotten who they really work for — we the people, not their mega campaign donors and large corporations. A congressperson’s schedule reveals how much more time they spend meeting with corporate special interest groups and lobbyists or rubbing elbows with CEOs at campaign fundraisers than meeting with their actual constituents.

Large corporations have found it very easy to spend time in Washington interfering and taking advantage of our political process because of the broad interpretation of the Constitution and the reinforcement of First Amendment rights to corporations in the 2010 Supreme Court decision, Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission. This broad interpretation has allowed corporations to use these First Amendment freedom of speech rights to donate millions of dollars to political campaigns. This amount of money is vastly more than your or I could ever afford to contribute, and it creates a tremendous disadvantage to the average citizen. Who do you think is going to be first at the door asking for a favor when their politician gets elected?

July 3, 2021

June 24, 2021

Letter to the Editor

May 11, 2021

Link to testimony is here

Cleveland Ordinance 

CHAPTER 106 – DEMOCRACY DAY

106.01 Democracy Day; Public Hearing

106.02 Letter

106.03 Further Hearings

• 106.01 Democracy Day; Public Hearing

Beginning in the year 2017, the Mayor and City Council shall designate one day in the second week of May following the November federal elections as "Democracy Day: A Call for a U.S. Constitutional Amendment." On this day, the Mayor and City Council shall sponsor a public hearing in a public space within the City. The City shall publicize the public hearing on its website and through area media at least one (1) month in advance of the hearing. The public hearing will examine the impact on the City of political contributions of corporations, unions, political action committees, and super-PACs. The Mayor and at least one (1) City Councilperson shall submit testimony at the public hearing. In addition, all citizens of Cleveland will be permitted to submit oral testimony for a period of at least five (5) minutes per citizen. The public hearing shall be held during an evening or weekend time. The City shall record the minutes of the hearing and make them available to the public no later than three (3) months after the hearing by posting them on Council's or the City's website.

(Ord. No. 1059-17. Passed 9-25-17, eff. 9-27-17)

• 106.02 Letter

Within one (1) week following the public hearing, the Clerk shall send a letter to the leaders of the Ohio House and Senate, and Cleveland's U.S. Congressional Representatives, and both Ohio U.S. Senators stating that a public hearing was held to support an amendment to the U.S. Constitution declaring:

(a) Only human beings, not corporations, are legal persons with constitutional rights;

(b) Money is not equivalent to speech, and, therefore, regulating political contributions and spending is not equivalent to limiting political speech.

(Ord. No. 1059-17. Passed 9-25-17, eff. 9-27-17)

• 106.03 Further Hearings

The biennial public hearings will continue for a period of ten (10) years through May 2027 or until a constitutional amendment reflecting the principles set forth in section 106.02 is ratified by three-quarters (3/4) of state legislatures.

(Ord. No. 1059-17. Passed 9-25-17, eff. 9-27-17)

TESTIMONY 

Monday, May 10, 2021

Video:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHtjqjdXxxM

Written: below

Sandy Bolzenius, Coordinator of the Central Ohio MTA affiliate, developed a creative, personal and powerful approach to request Rep. Joyce Beatty co-sponsor HJR 48, the We the People Amendment. In addition to working with others to set up a virtual meeting with Rep. Beatty or an aide, she produced and sent a packet to the Congresswoman. The packet contained a personal letter and booklet appealing to her interest in Frederick Douglass and in making the connections between the efforts of Douglass, Ida B. Wells and Rosa Parks to assert the morality and constitutionality of slaves being human persons, not property, with Move to Amend's efforts that corporations are property, not human beings, and can be defined by We the People. 

Below is Sandy's letter to Rep. Beatty. Click on the image to download the booklet 

Video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhmV1Z3F6sQ

                Saturday, April 17, 10 am ET

VILLAGE OF CHAGRIN FALLS

MOVE TO AMEND

March 4, 2021

Present: Grube, Rogoff, DeBernardo

The virtual meeting was called to order at 9:00 a.m. by Council President Erinn Grube.

Written statements were read from the following and are attached:

Diana Nazelli, 35 High Court, Chagrin Falls

Greg Coleridge, Cleveland Heights Resident

Anthony Fossaceca, 61 Olive Street, Chagrin Falls

Kathryn Garvey, 70 East Washington Street, Chagrin Falls

Sharon Broz, 410 Bell Street, Chagrin Falls

Judy Kramer, 165 Pheasant Run Drive, Chagrin Falls

Judy Majcen, 7180 Harris Farm Drive, Bainbridge Township

Lynne Rustad, 442 Solon Road, Chagrin Falls

Becky Thomas, 124 Ridgewood Road, Chagrin Falls

Audio comments from:

David Lima, 7774 Litchfield Drive in Mentor, said he coordinates the Mentor Move to Amend. He spoke about the ongoing tension in the history of the United States between legislative efforts to limit the influence of money and political power and judicial rulings curving congress=s power to do so.

Russ, 10259 Regatta Trail, Reminderville, spoke about the influence of corporations, problems with the environment, and global warming.

Mrs. Grube announced that the next Move to Amend meeting will take place in March of 2023.

Mrs. DeBernardo said we do face a lot of problems and we have been discussing them for decades. We do need to start working on solutions.

The meeting adjourned at 10:11 a.m.

MOVE TO AMEND DAY

March 4, 2021 - Public Comments Submitted

TABLE OF CONENTS

ZOOM CHAT ROOM MEETING COMMENTS ... 1

Greg Coleridge ... 1

Anthony Fossaceca ... 2

Kathryn Garvey/Sharon Broz ... 4

Judy Kramer ... 5

Judy Majcen ... 6

Diana Nazelli ... 7

Lynne Rustad ... 7

Becky Thomas ... 10

by Greg Coleridge

February 26, 2021

https://truthout.org/articles/big-tech-shouldnt-be-the-arbiter-of-our-free-speech-rights/

Business corporations don’t need free speech rights. Nor should they have the power to deny free speech to others. But leading up to and following the 2020 election, we saw both undemocratic realities on display.

MENTOR, OHIO | February 23, 2021

The biennial city-sponsored virtual public hearing for Mentor residents to speak on the impact of money in politics and its influence on our democracy and the role of corporations and other moneyed interests that play a part in the political process.

The hearing was mandated as part of a Mentor Move to Amend-led effort to pass a ballot initiative calling on the City to communicate to federal and state representatives that Mentor citizens want a Constitutional Amendment to end corporate personhood and money as free speech. The citizen-driven ballot initiative passed in 2014 by 70%.

[]-[]-[]

Dave Lima

There has been an ongoing tension in the history of the United States between legislative efforts to limit the influence of money and political power, and judicial rulings curbing Congress' power to do so. Particularly in the past 50 years, legislative efforts and Supreme Court rulings have made pivotal changes to the role that money plays in our democracy. Efforts to restrict the influence of money have been rolled back largely based on the misguided narrative that artificial entities are people and money is equivalent to speech protected by the First Amendment.

(Public Hearing hosted by Cleveland Heights City Council and held virtually on January 28, 2021)

Almost 100 people virtually attended Cleveland Heights’ 8^th Annual Democracy Day, with 20 people testifying before City Council members Khalil Seren, Michael Ungar, Mary Dunbar, Davida Russell and Melody Hart. Council Vice President Seren presided.

Public testimony began with the announcement that in November 2020, Painesville became the latest Ohio city to vote for a citizens’ initiative calling for a 28th amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The amendment they stipulate clearly states that corporate entities do not have the constitutional rights of human beings, and money, not being speech, can be regulated in political campaigns. In addition, the Painesville initiative establishes regular Democracy Day public hearings like the one here and in many other cities, for citizens to testify before their local officials about the need for the amendment.

Published in Anchorage Daily News, 01/29/2021

According to Bloomberg News, President Joe Biden’s winning campaign took in $145 million in so-called “dark money” donations, compared to only $28.4 million such donations spent on behalf of Donald Trump’s losing bid. Biden’s campaign ultimately raised $1.5 billion.

While citizens can donate as much as $2,800 to a candidate in a federal election, that donation is publicly reported on the candidate’s Federal Election Commission Reports. Wealthy individuals who want to donate more (in many cases, a whole lot more) can donate to political nonprofit groups that are under no obligation to release their sources of funding. Those nonprofits can spend to support their preferred candidates or funnel it to candidate’s Super PACs. That’s a whole lot of influence! Million-dollar donors get their phone calls answered and maybe get their favorite legislation passed. Those millions of dollars are able to drown out the voices of regular Americans.

Remember all the post cards from Dan Sullivan and Al Gross? Much of their funding came from outside interests seeking to influence our Alaska elections. The majority of Americans across the political spectrum are fed up with this system. Please call our Congress members and ask them to support campaign finance reform limiting dark money donations.

— Julie Olsen Board Member, Move To Amend Alaska Anchorage

Opinions Anchorage Daily News 01-16-21

Should Alaska enforce its current law limiting contributions to SuperPACs on a par with limits on individual contributions to candidates’ campaigns?

The Alaska Public Offices Commission stopped enforcing that part of the law in 2012 in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Citizens United, reasoning that since the political expenditures of SuperPACs are independent of candidate campaigns, they do not raise the prospect of corruption. Between 2008 and 2018, unregulated independent expenditures increased from 3% to 36% of campaign spending in our state, and two-thirds of this new money was from Outside donors. Including the ballot measures, independent expenditures for the 2020 election exceeded $23 million! This flood of big money into Alaska elections should alarm every Alaskan. We are sick and tired of Outside interests telling us how to run our affairs, and we are exhausted by the bombardment of negative ads and mailers. This is an issue for Alaskans across the political spectrum, conservatives and liberals alike. Big Union and Big Tech contributions are just as problematic as Big Oil or Koch Industries contributions.

Video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3eYstCiLOOY&t=721s

The annual meeting gives residents a chance to voice their opinion on money in politics and other pressing issues.

Chris Mosby, Patch Staff  |  Posted Fri, Jan 22, 2021

https://patch.com/ohio/clevelandheights/democracy-day-jan-28-cleveland-heights

CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, OH — Democracy Day will be held Jan. 28 in Cleveland Heights, the city announced.

Eight years ago, voters in Cleveland Heights passed Issue 32, which declared support for a 28th Constitutional Amendment, which would say corporate entities are not people and do not have Constitutional rights. The passed legislation also said money does not qualify as speech and money spent on elections should be regulated.