February 19, 2012
Another view of OWS
I have written a couple of articles recently concerning the OWS protests. I applauded these folks for courageously standing up and beginning the fight to regain control of our country by and for we the people. My main criticism of OWS has been the slogan of “99 vs. 1” that they have chosen to adopt. I do believe that our nation's many problems have mainly been caused by wealthy and powerful organizations of every kind with their increasing ability to influence laws and regulations in their favor. However, to blame all of the wealthy diverts attention from our elected lawmakers in Washington who are supposed to protect us from the normal and expected greed of the powerful special interests of every kind.
Today I include an excerpt from a guest editorial written by the brother of one of our local residents for his own local newspaper. My thanks to Bob Gray for sharing this document that was written by his brother Joe Gray. Thanks also to Joe for allowing me to share this in my column.
From: Joe Gray
You might have noticed us on the street corner in downtown Martinsburg with signs that say things such as "Social and Economic Justice" or "Take Back Our Government from Corporate Control."
We call ourselves "Occupy Martinsburg," and we share common values and concerns with Occupy Wall Street and the rest of the Occupy movement.
There are many reasons why we "occupy." Many of us are concerned with what we see as a loss of social and economic justice in this country.
The most obvious examples include:the bailing out of Wall Street, with financiers making excessive profits; evicting homeowners while their homes are bulldozed and the people go homeless; and exporting of our jobs while huge stores that sell almost nothing made in the USA pay poverty-level wages.
The gap between rich and poor has widened greatly in recent years and now rivals only that of the period just prior to the Great Depression.
We feel powerless to correct these problems because we feel that our government is no longer responsive to us.
We "occupy" because we believe we have arrived at a place in this country where our government responds more to wealthy corporate interests than to the people. We believe strongly that the government must be controlled only by the people.
I recently reread the Declaration of Independence, and this is the part that stood out for me:
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed ... "
I repeat, "Deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed."
A Supreme Court decision issued nearly two years ago, known as Citizens United, concluded that corporations are people and therefore entitled to free speech. They also concluded that money is a form of speech and that corporations cannot be restricted in the amounts they may spend to support a political candidate.
As a result, the people's influence over the election of their Congress and president is drowned out by the deluge of corporate money. Corporations can spend billions more than the majority of the people and are willing to spend to influence elections because it garners them even greater rewards. It is no longer apparent that our government is "deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed."
We don't think our founding fathers were referring to corporations as the ones from which government should derive its power or receive its consent. They were referring to people like you and me. The government should serve by consent of we, the people, and no one else.
We are trying to figure out how to get our government back and how to make life better for the people who live here in this community.
Joe Gray
Joe points out that the Constitution specifically states that those who govern us derive their power from the consent of the governed. He's right, but then, who elects these folks in Washington for term after term to represent us? Last I looked...it is all of us who bother to vote. We elect them and thus they do derive their power to govern from we the governed. If we aren't happy with their actions, and we're clearly not, why don't we just fire them for failing to govern in our best interests? We just don't seem to have the courage to do so. Instead we just keep re-electing the same bozos even when we see them consistently not representing our best interests. How smart are we?
I agree with most of what Mr. Gray has to say, and admire him and folks like him for their willingness to personally try to change the course of our nation. Our leaders won't change unless we speak out loudly and visibly. I admire these folks for at least trying to do something to make a difference. Meanwhile the majority of us sit by our warm fires and complain about what's going on to no avail.
What do you think?
Mike Tower
Hendersonville, NC
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