MARQUETTE, MI— Corporate interests, not the people, for all intents and purposes now own America. Moneyed interests control the political process and routinely pour millions of dollars into political campaigns. They have completely corrupted the political process, and this is especially true in Berrien County, Michigan, where it is no longer a secret.
The health and wellbeing of corporate structures are placed before the health and well-being of communities, no matter how many people are trapped in poverty, no matter how much corporate policies widen the already alarming gap between rich and poor, no matter how much human havoc is wreacked among working people whose livelihoods are threatened by corporate restructuring or downsizing, no matter how many more known toxic substances are poured into our ground, our air and our food; no matter how many young people are sent to decrepit schools that cannot even afford textbooks, where teaching has become more about crowd control than education in communities where real chances for young people making it in the world get smaller and smaller.
The top five percent of our population takes home half the nation’s income; huge and profitable companies lay off thousands of employees for no other reason than to increase their stock prices and already outrageous executive compensation packages. Congress and other elected officials grant huge subsidies and tax breaks for “corporate welfare” amounting to billions of dollars. The welfare and life and safety of the average American is increasingly crushed underneath it all.
Many economic concerns pour through the halls of our government like lava; financial interests are unabashedly placed ahead of the collective good. We spend billions upon billions to support certain industries, rather than to support our children, in organized business interests can afford highly paid lobbyists to make it happen, in both legal and illegal ways. The influence of money on the political process is a fast-growing malignant cancer in America.
“Corporate welfare,” tax subsidies to the wealthiest corporations, increases to the tune of billions of dollars, take place while Head Start programs are obliterated. If we believe in the principle of equality, then the rich should not be granted greater opportunities than the poor.
We the people must say enough is enough and fight the corporations.
Editor’s note: The corporations in Benton Harbor, especially Whirlpool and the local government and court system they rule, put Rev. Pinkney behind bars to try to stop the movement—but it hasn’t worked. The movement continues to grow.
