Prop. 1 elevates rights

In his letter “Memo traces politics” (Oct. 3), Bart Haggin traces the rise of corporate power and its disregard for the rights of individuals, communities and nature.

He is largely correct in his assessment, but he doesn’t go far enough and suggest what we should do about it.

The fact is that corporate “persons” have rendered us natural persons nearly powerless.

As writer Jane Anne Morris describes it: “Corporate strategy aims to increase the power that corporations have over people. Our strategy splits our resources and dissipates our power.”

That is, we, natural persons, stand by while corporations run roughshod over us.

The results are clear for our neighborhoods, our ecosystems and workers.

Rather than let themselves get run over again and again, communities across the United States are beginning to adopt laws that deny corporations rights at the local level. It’s a defiant stand because it challenges defining law.

Morris writes: “If the civil rights movement had been afraid to touch the defining law of the land, we’d still be laboring under separate but equal.”

Proposition 1 elevates the rights of people, the community and the river over corporations.

It’s time for a new movement. Vote Yes on Proposition 1.

Brad Read

President, Envision Spokane

Spokane