Think

The US Supreme Court did something that makes our lives a little tougher today.

I've been watching the Ken Burns National Parks DVDs this week and each one has overwhelmed me with gratitude.  It seems like as special as these places are, it must have been a no-brainer to set them aside so that I, a person at least five generations removed, could experience their natural and never ending beauty.  How was I to know that just as every step we take as a society today tends to be argued, politicized, and hard-won, the parks were no different.  Can you imagine a world that hadn't preserved The Grand Canyon, that dammed up the Colorado only to allow resorts encased in concrete, helicopter launchpads, and businessmen as far as the eye can see to inhabit the cliffs and prime views?  What a loss that would have been.

And yet, that's what so many people wanted to do with the canyon.  Keep it private, buy it up, ensure they were able to profit from it and not others. Every park had its tireless supporters, its people much less influential than John Muir and Theodore Roosevelt who fought business and private land owners so that I, five generations later, could set foot on land that largely hasn't changed in thousands of years.  I couldn't be more thankful.

Today, the US Supreme Court made it easier for big business to run their own campaign ads (and non-profits to be fair, but we all know who has the real money).  A piece of me is sympathetic to the argument for free speech (I am a blogger after all), but should an entity such as a business, which is made up of individuals with beliefs as varied as the plants of the rainforest really have the right to take a stance and use their exorbitant funds to influence the public?  Who's going to speak for us, the individuals?  The people whose pensions are getting cut by these companies, who didn't get raises last year, who may not agree with the company's current environmental practices, who were told they won't be paid while on maternity leave, who've been working overtime without extra pay for...ever?  You see, a company is not a special interest group.  A company is a business.  The needs and decisions of the business reflect a few key executive's strategic insights and may or may not be prudent for their employees, their customers, or the world at large.  Is a business entitled to have an opinion and to participate in a democracy?  Absolutely!  Should it be allowed to spend its income on influencing external factors that affect it?  Absolutely!  Should it be given the right to use its resources, resources bestowed on it by the collective effort of diverse individual employees, to set forth any public campaign that hasn't been approved by the employees and shareholders?  No.  One may argue that whatever is in the company's best interest is in its employees' best interest since their income rides on the company's success.  I argue that many a horrible decision has been made by companies - decisions that squander our natural resources or eventually bring the company down.  Our democracy is special because it has such a diversity of people with a diversity of needs.  Unlike a special interest group, a business can't represent all the beliefs of all of its workers fairly. 

The toughest thing we need to overcome in this country is the deafening roar of money.  It speaks through the media and your paycheck.  How many times have you decided not to pursue a career you might love because you don't think it would pay the bills?  Money is power, but until today some of the power that money had to speak louder than the individual and influence a great section of our country into doing things that simply are not in its best interest was squashed by protective laws.  That protection is gone.  It's clear that we're on our own.

The only thing we have left to do is THINK.  Who's behind the ad?  Is it true?  Is this really in my best interest?  A nation of thinkers can suppress a nation filled with money.  If you pay close attention to what's being said and make decisions based on your beliefs and campaign facts what you'll be left with is the knowledge that you're leaving behind a nation filled with many beautiful things for generations to come.  I urge you to think!