Maine Sunday Telegram
August 6, 1995
Bringing our government
BACK DOWN TO EARTH
by Carolyn Chute
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This is another in a series of guest columns
that examine the forging of public policy in
the nation's capital. Carolyn Chute has
written "The Beans of Egypt, Maine,"
"Letourneau's Used Auto Parts" and, most
recently, "Merry Men." The next column, by
Neil Rolde, an author and former state
legislator, is scheduled for Aug. 20.
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Congress, we were told when we were in our formative years, is
where the senators and representatives go to represent us. We live
in a democracy which means when it comes to the sovereign power of
our government, we are that power. Not a king. Not a queen. Not a
dictator. But us, THE PEOPLE. Through our votes we have our voice.
And through our freedom of speech and the rights to assemble and
to petition.
Also those fiery idealistic ingenious hardworking radicals of our
past cooked up another wonderful idea for us: state govenunent.
This was nice. More personal. More handy. More part of the local
grapevine. Easier to keep tabs on.
But the best thing of all about state government was its job of
approving or disapproving and revoking corporate charters. For
years and years, if corporations didn't do things in the best
interests of communities, but treated their workers like animals,
made nasties in the rivers, bullied', cheated or lied, THE PEOPLE
made a racket and their legislators tore those charters up into
confetti. Meanwhile, rich folk were paying income taxes and
property taxes like the rest of us and life went on.
Have you had a queer feeling lately that the sovereign power of
THE PEOPLE has shifted? Have you felt as though corporations have
become people and you are just a concept? Seems nobody in
government even recognizes the existence of "employees," small
farms or small business today. Or small anything. (Oh, excuse me.
Today your small business is called micro-biz.) Welfare, real
welfare, goes to corporations instead of your family or neighbors
when they need it. Your grown kids can't afford a house. Lucky if
they can afford a camper. (But then try living in a camper and the
government will fine you.)
Meanwhile, your local and state tax bases aren't stretching
because the people who pay the taxes are losing their jobs or
working part time, and the people who make mountains of money pay
NO TAXES. Your little squeaks of dismay are unheard. Your values
are being called "provincial." Your grandfather's 32 Special
hanging on the wall is being called "dangerous." Your kids are
being called "unprepared." Your fears are being called "silly,"
"neurotic" or "fringe." Hundreds of articles are telling us that
America is cynical . . . that cynicism is naughty, is unpatriotic,
is ungrateful. "Look" they say, "just look at the starving masses
in Bookibimmi. Look at the country that has the wild-man ruler and
women who wear things over their faces and aren't allowed to show
off their legs. Feel lucky!!!"
So you feel chastened. You hang your head. But you don't have a
job! Or your job is in a place with no windows. No benefits.
Practically no pay. Or just no variety, a job where one day is the
predictable echo of the last, a living-death job. Your nghts in
the shadow of corporate rights are only a notch above animal
rights and you are aware that animal rights are dismal. Inflation
is dogged. Government deficits billow. Advertisers expand our
children's minds with all that they shall covet in the guise of
all that they shall NEED. You dismantle your TV. But now TV is in
the schools! Two paper companies own the state of Maine, two hog
companies own Iowa, one chemical company owns Wisconsin.
Three hundred percent profit on your heart medicine. Machines
answer the telephones wherever you call. Machines have all the
jobs. Machines are getting all the trees, all the fish, shipping
all your state's resources off to Wakakawasakimawa and there's
nothing left but stumps and highways and Wal-Much and
Video-Grab-N-Go. Your babies are in day care, then school, then
colleges, then gone. Gone where? To Ploontooki, Minn., or San
Crisco, Calif., or some "neighborhood" of the vast global
corporate village, yes, your children gone, raising your Polaroid
grandchildren and keeping the Mother's Day card corporations
joyously dancing.
"But listen!" the articles remind you. "You are not the starving
Bookibimmians! You have food! Pretty food. And supermarkels with
aisles as wide as cite streets. And you can show off your legs.
Stop complaining. In this country you have opportunities
everywhere. Stop thinking negatively. You make your own luck.
"What do you mean every five years things are worse so therefore
in five years it'll be worse and then in five more years . . . You
need therapy maybe? Or one of the publishing industry's books on
how to breathe differently in order to control your thoughts? You
say you are worried there won't be enough money for basics like
breakfast. And the computer which soon will be required to keep
you in touch. Hogwash. Things are getting better. The recession is
over! Congress is fixing things! And the president . . . if only
we can find the right president, he'll FIX it all for us!!"
Yeah, I've been reading these articles and, my friends, I'm a
little tired of this double-think bull.
First of all I should confess to you that I read only articles and
newsletters that don't have pictures. And I have no TV. So if Bill
Clinton, Jesse Helms, Bob Dole and O.J. Simpson all walked into
this room right now, I would not know which was which. I consider
their faces and their three-line quotes to be as trivial as sports
stars and sports scores. I'm not the kind of radical that believes
in blowing up government buildings. In the 1990s if you think for
yourself, you're a radical.
I have a solution. Hear me out. Shut off the TV a minute. Listen.
I would like to see the doors to Congress locked. For 10 years.
Yes with our elected officials inside. They can't get out. We'll
keep them comfortable. Lots of nice foods. Music. Movies. The
ballet. Comedians. Big bands. Big orgies if they want. I don't
care what they do in there. As long as MEGATROPOLIS INSURANCE
MUTUAL AND TRUST and DUOTRON FOODS and MATRIX COMMUNICATIONS and
CHEVASAKI AUTO and MONSANTDUPONZINCMECURICO CORP. can't get in.
Same with the State Houses. Doors locked.
Meanwhile, THE PEOPLE get busy as bees. ALL TVs are off. Instead
we MEET. We get educated on what our sovereign rights really are.
We learn the real history of business and business-charter making,
where it's been and where it is now. There would be a great stir
in all our households and meeting places and in the streets. We
would be writing up proposals to our state legislators that would
sound somcthing like this:
"We urge local and state elected officials to adopt this
Resolulion: `Whereas only citizens have sovereign authority to
grant charters of incorporation: now, Therefore, be it resolved,
that the legislature of this state redefine, the process and
criteria for granting corporate charters to our specifications;
restore civic authority over the governance of existing corporate
charters to our specifications; and finally, revoke the charters
of harmful corporations and revoke the certificatcs of authority
of harmful foreign and alien corporations operating in our
state.'"
Then we write out our demands of Congress that the rich be taxed .
. . REALLY taxed.
We decide also to challenge the prevailing judicial doctrines
And we strengthen ourselves against the blackmail that
corporations always use on us if we don't let them do anything
they want: They'll leave the state and take all our jobs. Good
riddance! Where the great oak falls, many little cheery saplings
will sprout.
Now THE PEOPLE surround the State Houses and Congress in huge
mean-looking mobs, vast masses of Americans filling filling the
streets.
"Silently, our eyes stare straight at the doors that are being
unlocked. Out steps the Congress men and women, slightly older.
They look down from the doorways and see THE PEOPLE. We are
shoulder to shouder, rank and file. We call out, "HELLO THERE
SENATORS! REPRESENTATIVES! WE HAVE SOMETHING WE WANT YOU TO DO!"
The senators and representatives, of course, are all smiling. They
say happily. "Anything you want, you can have! It's really such a
great idea, this democracy idea . . . once you give it a bit of
thought."
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This document is available on the web
at rat haus reality, ratical branch via the URL
http://www.ratical.org/corporations/GovDwn2Erth.txt
To see all the documents available, go to
http://www.ratical.org/corporations/
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