The Corporation//THE 28TH AMENDMENT

It's so fitting that I was shown The Corporation when I was. It was just 4 or 5 days before that marine toxicologist, commercial salmon fisherwoman, community activist, author, and all around bad-ass Dr. Rikki Ott was speaking on how she is working on an amendment to change the definition of a corporation so that it is estranged from that of the human person. A corporation, she argues is a collective and not a singular person with the human rights given to each American born citizen. This is precisely why I like going to a liberal arts school, in that I have talked about the idea of "The Corporation" in more than just this class and am using notes from another class to relate to this essay.

Anyways, Dr. Ott layed the foundation for us, which was good because I was pretty unaware of the legalities behind corporate America and all that jazz, saying that in 1886, American law granted right to "corporate persons," allowing corporations to apply our own individual rights that are so highly valued as a citizen of the U.S., amassing great wealth and power. More power. More money. More speech.

But as we have seen this power is an illegitimate power. We wee that these corporations, who were merely trying to produce "a whole galaxy of things to make a better life on Earth" (The Corporation) have actually been in the process of for many decades and will continue to
-abuse and corrupt the legal system
-abuse the environment
-abuse campaign finance
-spread globalization and
-continue to fuel the economic collapse

It is clear that the focus is simply on making money with no (intrinsic, physical, moral) value attatched. Dr. Ott even refers to the idea of a "corpocracy," basically the type of goverment that we're in and that is where corporate values are top priority, we see a "suicide economy," we are inundated with wars, cancer, divorce, etc. and all it is is about money exchanging hands. One needs treatment for cancer. $. One needs $ for divorce proceedings. BILLIONS of $$$$$$$$$$ are WASTED on wars. Acne is only a problem because we can sell you things to make it better. You think cavemen/the Anasazi/the Puritans gave a shit about their blemishes?

So what Dr. Ott is proposing to Congress is that much like the separation of church and state, we have separation of corporation and state. Instead of consolidating wealth and power, ultimately destroying everything, we as a nation should deem that corporations in fact don't have the same properties as natural persons. While I think Dr. Ott is very inspiring and legendary in her kind of word, I think she may have bitten off more than she can chew with Am 28. After all, what can a middle-aged, 100 pound woman do in the face of all the head honchos and big cheeses that are laced in a web of bribery, payoffs, lies, deceit, loss, and capital? I don't know if it is much. I really hope so, though. The point is though that it does take more than a hundred pound woman, or student activist, or factory worker, or single father to make the difference and if we all speak up, something can be done. I just fear that there's many more connections in this web from our goverment to the bigger corporations--money exchanging hands--for this to be solved anytime soon.


***To learn more about this amendment, visit
http://www.rikkiott.com/
http://www.civicengagement.com/
http://www.celdf.org/