Crooks misses the point

In his column on May 26, Gary Crooks misses the point entirely. He claims the initiatives sponsored by Envision Spokane and Spokane Moves to Amend “limit the free speech and due process rights of citizens who work for corporations.” Nothing could be further from the truth.

What both initiatives have in common is that they limit the rights and influence of corporations, which they enjoy and wield daily against citizens and communities. Both initiatives expand the rights of citizens to be more directly involved in deciding the future of this community, whether it’s in our neighborhoods, our workplaces, or the natural environment.

Crooks argues against both initiatives by comparing them to voting on desegregation in Arkansas in 1954, or voting on mixed-race marriage in Virginia in the 1960s. Neither comparison is valid, because neither initiative seeks to limit rights; they seek to expand the rights of the people to govern themselves, and not be governed by a corporate few.

Those who worked tirelessly for 125 years for women’s suffrage sponsored over 450 state and local initiatives to expand rights, using their government to give rights to those who did not have them. These initiatives have the same foundation.

Brad Read

Spokane