Protesters at UC Davis.
Reader Supported News | Perspective
19 April 12
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are no longer citizens participating in a democracy. We are
shareholders attending a meeting of a large, corrupt corporation.
Call it Americorp.As shareholders, we sit face-forward, quietly, while the CEO, or president, makes his presentation, glossing over balance sheets and quarterly earnings, assuring us that the company is moving in the right track. The board of directors, or Congress, sometimes keeps the CEO in check and overrules him, but, for the most part, their agenda is the same as the president's agenda - preserving the status quo.
The shareholders at the meeting get ballots, although
each ballot item has the opinion of the CEO and board under it.
They're told by the board to vote a certain way, based on the opinion
of the executives. The shareholders have a voice at the end of the
meeting, but, for the most part, the CEO and board will do whatever
they want. If the shareholders should speak out of turn or protest inside of the shareholder meeting, the CEO will wait politely while dissidents are swiftly escorted out by police.
The founders never intended for the people to be
obedient subjects or quiet shareholders. We were meant to be
citizens. And as US citizens we have rights granted to us by the US
Constitution, which are irreplaceable, unbendable and unchanging. The
same George Washington who was inaugurated at Federal Hall in New
York would be furious at Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Commissioner Ray Kelly
and the NYPD officers who arrested nonviolent protesters expressing their constitutional rights
to free speech and free assembly on the steps of 26 Wall Street, the
memorial of where Washington was inaugurated and where the Bill of
Rights was first introduced.
Sleeping on sidewalks as a form of protest was deemed
constitutionally-protected speech in a 2000 district court ruling,
Metropolitan Council, Inc vs. Safir. But just this week the NYPD
arrested citizens exercising that speech and beat those who resisted.
Simultaneously, corporations, or "legal persons," spend unlimited
amounts of undisclosed money on political campaigns, and have that
deluge of cash protected as free speech
under the Constitution. In Americorp, corporations are citizens with
the right to constitutionally-protected speech. And citizens are
shareholders, arrested and taken to jail for daring to speak against
their corporate overlords.
Citizens are told every day by the media, owned by the
same corporations that own our politicians, that we are divided.
Their goal is to segment us into walled off demographics
and pit us against each other - liberal vs. conservative, public
sector vs. private sector, Tea Party vs. Occupy. If they can isolate
us even further with individual labeling they will: college-educated
female, Black male under 35, union worker, single parent, etc.
We're told by the politicians we elect to represent
us, whose campaigns are financed by the same corporations that own
the media, that the government we pay taxes to every year is not to be trusted.
That only we know what's best for us, not the government. Such
tactics are meant to turn engaged citizens into isolated, apathetic
subjects. Democracy becomes a spectator sport, viewed through the
lens of the corporate media. Citizens are persuaded to be apathetic,
focusing only on their immediate needs and maintaining their income.
This allows the board and the CEO of
Americorp to continue their
plundering free of scrutiny.
Instead of having a wide range of choices of whom we
want to represent us we're only given two. They are presented as
having differing philosophies and use different language to create
the illusion of diversity, but their campaigns are financed by the same corporate backers that actively use their bottomless funds to practice "free speech."
The only role of Americorp shareholders is to vote on which rich guy
they'd like to continue the status quo for the next few years.
In a true democracy our officials are elected by and
held accountable to us, the citizen - the highest office in the land.
By focusing on the issues that unite instead of divide, and
organizing with other citizens who meet on common ground, we can
reject the status quo and its servants. Instead of seeing ourselves
as Republicans or Democrats, we will see ourselves as the 99 percent,
united by the crushing inequality, poverty and debt that are
by-products of the 1 percent and their policies.
Americorp's executives are dependent on the
disinterest and apathy of the shareholders for their continued
prosperity.
So, on May 1st,
stop being shareholders in Americorp and reclaim your citizenship as
Americans. On May 1st, stand as one, and exercise the rights we've
always had loudly and proudly. Our rulers should remember that their
rule is only valid if we consent to it.
Carl Gibson, 24, of Lexington, Kentucky, is a spokesman and organizer for US Uncut,
a nonviolent, creative, direct-action movement to stop budget cuts
by getting corporations to pay their fair share of taxes. He graduated
from Morehead State University in 2009 with a B.A. in Journalism
before starting the first US Uncut group in Jackson, Mississippi, in
February of 2011. Since then, over 20,000 US Uncut activists have
carried out more than 300 actions in over 100 cities nationwide. You
may contact Carl at
carl@rsnorg.org.
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