A year ago, the Supreme Court finally stated in Citizens United what has been implicit in many decisions over the past decade. That corprations are persons with rights and protections under the US Contsitition. Justice John Paul Stevens, writing for the dissent and expressing a view held by the majority of Americans , said
"Corporations have no consciences, no beliefs, no feelings, no thoughts, no desires…Corporations help structure and facilitate the activities of human beings, to be sure, and their 'personhood' often serves as a useful legal fiction. But they are not themselves members of 'We the People' by whom and for whom our Constitution was established."
On the One year anniversary of this eye opening Supreme Court decision, Virginia Lyons, a Vermont State Senator has raised the torch, held up the light with a legislative initiative that would amend the US Constitution to clarify that corporations are not persons. The legislation, expected to pass the very progressive Vermont Legislature, is seen as a foundation stone for a 28th constitutional amendment.. contains compelling language that speaks a truth. "The profits and institutional survival of large corporations are often in direct conflict with the essential needs and rights of human beings,"{ Corporations} "have used their so-called rights to successfully seek the judicial reversal of democratically enacted laws.” {rendering} “democratically elected governments…ineffective in protecting their citizens against corporate harm to the environment, health, workers, independent business, and local and regional economies."
There is a groundswell of support: 76 percent of Americans, according to a recent ABC News poll, said they opposed the Citizens United decision.
Unity Through Diveristy
Tom Atlee's Co-Intelligence Institute is about an entirely different way of acting collectively to acheive social and economic goals. His recent essay on diversity as a strategy and a powerful creative potential is a wonderful example of the think and action that is Co-Intelligence. http://co-intelligence.org/DiversityUniverse.html
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