Maine Sunday Telegram
August 6, 1995

                          Bringing our government

                             BACK DOWN TO EARTH

by Carolyn Chute

               ----------------------------------------------
               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.
               ----------------------------------------------

     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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