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Democracy Day in Kent will examine corporate control of our democracy
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
It’s more than corporate money in elections
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?
Read moreFirstEnergy should be put out of business
July 3, 2021
COLUMBUS, OH: PBM fiasco shows more must be done to hold corporate executives responsible
June 24, 2021
Letter to the Editor
PBM fiasco shows more must be done to hold corporate executives responsible
I write to thank The Dispatch for its series on Pharmacy Benefit Managers and the editorial in the June 20 edition that summarized how PBMs prey upon the country’s health care system and increase the cost of health care.
More:Our view: 'Middlemen' tactics increase costs, reduce health-care options
The series illustrates the essential role local newspapers play in protecting the public interest.
It also revealed yet another example of how executives in corporations routinely escape accountability for their criminal actions because a corporation is considered a “person” under current U.S. law.
The Dispatch reported how Centene corporation and its subsidiaries double-billed Ohio for their services, were sued by the state and then paid the state $88 million to “settle” the case without admitting any wrongdoing. It also paid a total of $1.1 billion to settle claims from several other states.
But no one faced criminal charges. Not the executives and managers who planned the thefts. Not the accountants who buried the thefts in annual reports. Not the corporate boards that signed off on those reports. And of course, since a company cannot be locked up, not the corporate “person” that was allowed to use its stolen money to buy its way out of accountability. Everyone involved in this multistate criminal conspiracy walks away scot-free.
So I ask the question: If an individual swindles senior citizens and reaps millions of dollars, how much of that money should it take to pay a large fine, admit no wrongdoing and walk away with no criminal liability?
Corporations are not people.
As Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens noted in 2010, the idea of corporate personhood “often serves as a useful legal fiction…” Corporations “are not themselves members of 'we the people' by whom and for whom our Constitution was established.”
More information can be found at movetoamend.org.
Steve Abbott, Columbus
https://www.dispatch.com/story/opinion/letters/2021/06/24/readers-weigh-in-pharmacy-benefit-managers-affordable-housing/5306190001/?fbclid=IwAR3aWF307WY36sR34hMIgvucR82nqyIo7I5W1EHeC-f9hhHhB5L7FN6z5Ys
Cleveland Democracy Day Public Hearing Testimony
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
Read more
Lobbying Rep. Joyce Beatty to Co-sponsor the We the People Amendment
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
Fighting Corruption in Ohio: Ending the Political Influence of Wealthy Individuals & Corporations in State Government - VIDEO
Video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhmV1Z3F6sQ
Saturday, April 17, 10 am ET
SPEAKERS
CLEV EAST, OH: CH's Democracy Day presented powerful testimony
Cleveland Heights' Democracy Day presented powerful testimony
http://www.heightsobserver.org/read/2021/03/31/chs-democracy-day-presented-powerful-testimony
Cleveland Heights City Council members, speakers and virtual viewers called January’s 8th annual Democracy Day public hearing “inspiring,” “informative,” and “enlightening”—hardly the “waste of time” claimed by Robert Shwab in a letter published in the March issue of the Heights Observer.
CHAGRIN FALLS, OH: Democracy Day Public Hearing Testimony
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
Read more
