Legalize Democracy
Democracy is in trouble and there are many signs to prove this. According to David Cobb of the Move to Amend Leadership Team, democracy is not a noun, it’s a verb. Demos means the people, and kratia means rule, so the word democracy literally means “the people rule.” In the US we have the symbols of democracy; after all you get to go and pull a lever every two or four years, but what many fail to realize is that you only get to choose from candidates that have been pre-approved and pre-selected by the ruling elite.
When it comes to actually having a say about education, salaries, health care, war, contamination and other global or national crises, the people never have an opportunity to participate in a meaningful way.
From the quality of air you breathe to the quality of foods you purchase at the supermarket, everything is controlled by big corporations that are only interested in making a profit.
Even the prison system has a profit motive attached. The Corrections Corporation of America has been going all over the country, seeking out those states that are trapped for cash. They offer to take over the prisons but one of the stipulations is that the corporation will pay the state if the state agrees to maintain the prison at 90% capacity. No wonder so many innocent citizens are being criminalized!
If you take a look at history, it’s clear that laws have determined who is considered a person and this has affected the way in which we see each other and deal with each other. This includes race and race relations in the US. Here are a few examples:
Article 4 of the 1791 US constitution section 2.3 defined people as property. The authors of the constitution were very interested in protecting their property which included slaves. With the emancipation proclamation of 1862, Whites were paid reparations for “lost property”.
Then there’s the example of the Indian Removal Act of 1830 which made sure that indigenous communities were forced from their homelands. In 1882 The Chinese Exclusion Act banned immigration of both skilled and unskilled Chinese laborers. In 1924 the Johnson Reed Act favored the immigration of Nordics over the inferior races of Asia and Southern and Eastern Europe. In 1942 an Executive Order forced 111,000 Japanese Americans into concentration camps.
It becomes clear, then, that “We the People” need to become cognizant and involved in the establishment of the laws that govern our country. Every major movement that fought discriminatory laws seemed impossible when it began. But all it took was for a few citizens to get together and start a conversation. Watch this documentary now.
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