guest post by Joy Arnold of Central Kentucky Move to Amend
Come out Sunday, January 19 to watch "Why We Fight" and join a panel discussion afterward to consider: Why do we fight?
An immediate answer is: To protect and spread democracy, silly.
That's what we're told, over and over. Well, how's that going for us?
All things being relative, perhaps by comparison to many other nations, through most of the last century we could still claim democracy was the basis of our form of government; some would debate how much democracy we've ever had. As the fitness buffs tell us, if you don't use it, you'll lose it, and through our neglect, we have. In hindsight we are now learning that the government we thought we had was methodically being turned into what we now see as a plutocracy.
Jan. 21 marks four years since the Supreme Court of the United States' (SCOTUS) ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. Organized the following November, CKMTA is part of a coalition of organizations building a democracy movement which will, along with increasing participatory government, result in a Constitutional amendment declaring; CORPORATIONS ARE NOT PEOPLE; MONEY IS NOT SPEECH.
This year to mark the day, CKYMTA determined to focus on one of the corporate industries that cripples our attempts at self-government and CKCPJ, recognizing our common interests, joins us.
With the Citizens United SCOTUS ruling, more of us than ever realized what the majority of that body intends for us to be -- a people whose lives are controlled for the pleasure of international mega-corporations and their stock holders who pull the strings of our elected so-called representatives.
We've seen our food supply adulterated; our medicines monopolized; our health relegated to insurance profits, not care; our environment all but used up; our news services pasteurized to the point of little more than entertainment; our educational system narrowed to preparing students to score well on questionable standardized tests and denying them access to problem solving life skills.
Sunday afternoon offers the central Kentucky public an opportunity to look closely at another industry which is in place more for the profit of private corporations than our security or democracy.
Why We Fight, the 2005 film, describes how the military industrial complex has functioned to enrich a few while it destroyed the reputation of the United States around the world and killed unknown numbers of innocent people and our enlisted troops. Surely it would grieve President Eisenhower to know that he had so accurately predicted what would happen if we did not control that industry of which he had first hand knowledge.
Our purpose is to help our friends and neighbors come to grips with the fact that we have not learned an authentic history of our country and we've neglected our civic duty by thinking all there was to it was to vote. So, it's up to us to re-educate ourselves; film is a painless vehicle for this education. And education is the foundation for a growing democracy movement beginning to catch hold around the world.
A movement takes more people than are currently involved -- some say 25 to 30 percent of the population. Come on out Sunday afternoon to learn about one example of why you'll want to join the movement to create democracy. In the tradition of each of the movements before, education is the indispensible ingredient -- not just our individual, personal education with which we can be very self-satisfied, but the education -- indeed, the re-education of the people most harmed by the control of mega corporations around the world.
LOCATION: The Central Library opens at 1:00; the program begins at 1:15 and there will be a panel discussion and a reception after the film. (Check the Facebook event page for updates)
Panel participants include Nancy Jo Kemper, pastor of New Union Christian Church, Richard Mitchell, life-long peace advocate and CKCPJ board member, Peter Berres, Viet Nam veteran and April Browning, student, democracy advocate, and CKCPJ staff. Let's watch, listen and then let's talk.
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