PUTNEY — An injustice is being addressed.
An injustice committed by some corporations that have gotten so large they've forgotten that the big picture is made up of individuals, individuals who have been hurt by actions that have placed the corporate good before the common good.
Corporations like Enron, Bear Stearns, and many others have squandered fortunes and plundered savings and retirement plans with impunity.
Even more insulting are efforts to corrupt the electoral process with floods of cash by these corporations, buoyed by the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission.
Vermonters are saying no to this.
Vermonters are recognizing an injustice and have spoken out and acted to correct this injustice through our Town Meetings. In addition to attending to our road repairs and school budgets, we are speaking up about this injustice.
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We can split hairs and parse the semantics here for what most accurately reflects our insult. (And, lest I be accused of being “anti-semantic,” I do acknowledge the import of getting the language right here.)
The main point: we are collectively addressing an injustice, an abuse of power. Here in Vermont, such injustice is not suffered easily.
Those individuals who make up the Big Picture in Vermont are raising their voices as one and saying, “Enough.”
The nation will take notice, as it has in the past with the nuclear freeze movement. As Bill McKibben and 350.org have shown, little ol' Vermont can have a great big voice.
We can stand up, as a nation, to the 1-percenters and to the injustice that some corporations have rendered on individual rights. We're doing just that here.
Perhaps if Town Meetings were a regular part of life in communities across the country, more people would feel more empowered, less frustrated, and less disconnected from the political process.
As a Vermonter, it makes me even more grateful for what we have here.
Moving forward, let freedom ring all over this great land, as it does in Vermont.