We, the people of this great nation, have as one of our inalienable rights, the right to pursue happiness. As we learned in kindergarten and from our parents; with rights come responsibilities, in this case the responsibility not to harm others or break laws in the pursuit of our happiness.
Our kindergarten teachers instilled in us the necessity and moral correctness of taking turns, sharing, being kind to others, showing compassion to those less fortunate and other admirable qualities. Corporations, being only legal entities, did not learn these values from their parents or from their kindergarten teachers as they had neither. Corporations are like the class bully who threatens to beat you up if you don”t give them your lunch money. We are being bullied by corporations, being forced to accept nuclear power, strip mining, GE foods, elections bought by their deep pockets and more, without an informed discussion and democratic decision by the citizens of this country.
These corporate bullies are not people. They should not have the rights of people as they can not behave responsibly, their only mandated purpose being to make a profit. We, the people, have both the right and the power to amend our constitution and take away corporate rights of personhood. It is time for corporations to face the consequences of being irresponsible. Let us take away the car keys and ground them for good.
Annelle Durham
Upper Lake
