Grassroots Demonstration August 18
To do this, it will take amending the U.S. Constitution to overturn the disastrous decision made by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2010 called “Citizens United”. This decision has created a “Democracy crisis” by putting the stamp of approval by the most powerful court in the nation to the idea that Corporations are people and that their money equals speech protected by the First Amendment of our constitution. In the wake of Citizens United, Corporations can now spend unlimited amounts of money to influence the outcome of our federal, state and local elections—elections that should be decided by the PEOPLE. People are the ones who should decide who will represent them and write the policies that govern their lives.
A group of concerned Santa Barbara residents have gathered hundreds of signatures from members of our community to take to the Santa Barbara City Council, along with a Resolution for them to adopt that clearly states that our city rejects “Citizens United” and supports a constitutional amendment to overturn it; Corporations are NOT people! Corporate money does not equal speech protected by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, and WE THE PEOPLE do not want it flooding our elections to influence the outcome that belongs to the people!
By doing this, Santa Barbara will join dozens of California cities, including Los Angeles, Ventura, Ojai, and San Francisco, and the state of California itself (California Assembly Joint Resolution 22) to call for a constitutional amendment to end corporate rule. Our election system has been turned into a high stakes “grovel-for-money match” that interferes with our representatives doing their job by making them constantly have to raise more and more money to compete with unlimited, undisclosed corporate contributions! Is this what the people of this country want? Is this what our political leaders want? We hope not!
RALLY: Join us at our Santa Barbara Move to Amend Rally on August 18, 2012, at the State Street entrance to the Paseo Nuevo Mall (between the 600 and 800 blocks) at high noon to sign this important petition and educate our community to the dangers of this bad decision. Call Lois Hamilton for more information at (805)962-9332.