“We the People,” … so begins our constitution.

The third anniversary of the 2010 Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United versus the FEC is approaching. The court, for purposes of campaign finance, essentially said “corporations are people” and “money is speech.” Huh!

Six billion dollars were spent during the last election. Are we to continue to turn our government over to Big Money influences such as corporations, unions, nonprofits and wealthy individuals? Millions of us say no!

Citizens at the grass roots are working to overturn this ruling by passing resolutions/ballot measures at the local and state levels, then sending them to Congress to persuade Congress to give us (the 50 states) a constitutional amendment to vote on.

Many cities and state legislatures have passed resolutions, thousands of citizens have signed petitions, and members of Congress along with President Obama are on record in support.

Republican John McCain has said “(The) Citizens United (ruling) is the worst decision ever … Money is money, not free speech.” So this is NOT a partisan issue.

At the Jan. 23 Bend City Council meeting, our local affiliate group of movetoamend.org will be asking our councilors to refer our issue to the May/November election. That would let us, the citizens of Bend, express our beliefs that “corporations are not people,” and “money is not speech.”

Join us at the Jan. 23 meeting and support a government of “We the People.”

Jim Payne

Bend