David Cobb of Move to Amend visits Grand Rapids

On Thursday January 12, Fountain Street Church will host David Cobb of Move to Amend as the next event in the Duncan Littlefair Great Speaker Series. Local representatives of Move to Amend and Occupy Grand Rapids are co-hosting the event, focused on discussing the reasons for separating corporate money from politics.

David Cobb will speak on the key issues of the Move to Amend campaign, an organized nationwide effort to create a 28th amendment to the U.S. Constitution that addresses two serious legal issues threatening democracy in America: corporate personhood and money being considered free speech. 

Cobb will discuss how the proposed amendment abolishes the concept of corporate personhood, or the legal fiction that corporations are people, and therefore have the same rights as people (often at the expense of actual people). The Supreme Court has made a series of controversial decisions over the last 125 years that critics see as cumulatively having an eroding effect on individual freedoms and the collective rights of communities in favor of corporate interests.  Environmental protection, occupational safety and labor rights, food and drug safety, consumer protection, and regulation of finance are just a few examples of the many  ways in which corporate personhood has negatively impacted the lives of millions of people in this country and abroad.  

The concept of money being considered equivalent to free speech has had massive impacts on politics in the U.S., essentially allowing corporations to donate unlimited amounts of money to politicians. The lack of transparency in campaign finance and congressional lobbying obscures the true motivations of politicians who have become financially dependent upon corporate donations in order to remain financially competitive with other candidates for re-election. The current atmosphere in American politics has become that of the perpetual campaign season, where elected officials focus more energy and time on appealing to prospective campaign financiers than conducting the actual work that benefits the citizens of their district. 

In addition to the grassroots efforts to support an amendment to the U.S. Constitution on a national level, citizens across the United States have been taking steps to address these important issues on a local level. City government in both Los Angeles and New York City have adopted resolutions declaring that corporations are not people. The state of Montana has recently reinstated their ban on corporate campaign contributions. This is seen by many as a major step in forcing the Supreme Court to address the issues by accepting the inevitable corporate-initiated legal challenges opposing the ban.

Occupy Grand Rapids has taken up the responsibility of circulating a petition that supports the City Commission of Grand Rapids adopting a Resolution to Abolish Corporate Personhood. Occupy Grand Rapids asks any persons connected to the City of Grand Rapids (past, present or future) to sign the petition in support of this resolution. People (actual human beings only!) connected to the city as a resident, a worker, a frequent visitor, a student, or any other meaningful context should feel free to sign the petition if they support this cause.