THE DEMOCRACY CONVENTION - DAY 5

The following is a synopsis of the "Using WILPF Corporate Personhood Timeline and Study Guide as an Education Tool".  Marybeth Gardham led the discussion on building connections to various faith communities and using WILPF national coalitions to form a powerful collaboration that will accelerate progress towards a meaningful, and effective amendment.  The best way to check out what WILPF is all about is by going to their website at: 

http://www.wilpfinternational.org/

They encourage you to:  "Don't be a bystander!"

They epitomized Alice Hoffman's quote: "Once you know something, you can not unknow it.  It is a burden that can never be given away."

People who know something, but fail to act, are just as much of an activist as those who are carrying protest signs……those who fail to act are, perhaps, even more effective, in their inaction, than those of us who consider ourselves activists.  Their inactivity, the inactivity of those who know better, has led us to where we are today.

Fellow WILPF member, activist, and WILPF founder, Jan Edwards, wrote the following words to be sung to the Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land".  It works well to play Woody Guthrie in the background while you sing out:

The Personhood Song 

by Jan Edwards 

(Sung to the tune of “This Land is Your Land”) 

Chorus: 

I am a person, you are a person, 

With flesh and blood and with mind and conscience. 

The corporation is not a person. 

That word belongs to you and me. 

They rape and plunder the world’s resources, 

Destroying forests and killing wildlife. 

The corporation must turn a profit, 

Trampling over you and me. 

They dump big money into elections, 

Buying our Congress and legislatures. 

The corporation a legal fiction, 

Now has more rights than you and me. 

The Robber Barons bought off the judges 

To give them rights in the Constitution. 

Who said the courts had the right to do that? 

That job belongs to you and me. 

The First Amendment protects our freedom 

Of free expression and of religion. 

The corporations have gone and stole it. 

Those rights belong to you and me. 

The Fourth Amendment requires warrants 

For search and seizure; but corporations 

Evade the health codes and regulations 

And environmental laws. 

Whenever Wal-Mart destroys a Main Street 

And all the people rise up in protest, 

The corporate cries of “Discrimination!” 

Override democracy. 

If “We the People” are truly sovereign 

And rule the country through our elections, 

Then we must take back from corporations 

Rights that were meant for you and me.

I am a person, you are a person, 

With flesh and blood and with mind and conscience. 

The corporation is not a person. 

That word belongs to you and me.

That word belongs to you and me. 

This workshop/seminar ended with the singing of the above song.