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Derived from the Latin word corpus, the word corporation means simply a
body of people. But while the Bill of Rights guarantees equal rights for
everybody, today’s corporate body may in many cases hold a greater influence
over governmental day to day operation than any body with a single human soul
could ever hope to.
The most interesting suggestion I’ve heard lately is that
elected leaders should “negotiate” with corporations; “reason” with them. I
always thought that we had laws to protect the rights of citizens. But now it
seems that if the corporate body is large enough and rich enough, it’s OK to “negotiate”
the meaning of the laws in their greater monetary
favor.
If I’m ever stopped for speeding, I’ll have to remember to
suggest to the State Trooper that we “negotiate” the ticket. He’ll get a kick out
of that.
Perhaps it is that Corporate Citizens have more rights than
private citizens. Maybe our government sees itself as sharing
power with the same interests that regularly bundle political
donations in the tens of thousands of thousands of dollars.
Even our news reporting businesses are under the growing
control of large corporations.
Eric Klinenberg writes in his new book “Fighting for Air” , that
corporate ownership of media organizations not only results in poorer reporting
and a growing distrust on the part of the public toward news reporting, but
also poorer community support. As an example he talks about a toxic spill in Minot, North
Dakota where the public was instructed to tune to the
local radio station for evacuation information. It turned out that the local
station was controlled by corporate computer from 1200 miles away, and had no
way to receive or relay information vital to the community’s survival.
Tales of corporate media are not meant to distract from the
overall message in the these pages about poor treatment of workers, sold
security secrets, lost jobs, immigration manipulation, and the overall
decline in good, solid, middle class American jobs. Not all corporations are
bad. There are many US
corporations that work alongside or within citizen groups like OCM and CPA, to improve the
business climate in America, for Americans.
The difference between those businesses and others may be that they value people
and our nation above world wide influence and power at any cost.
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