The System Isn’t Broken,
Its Fixed
“He has refused his
Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.”
This is not a quote
relating to Governor John Hickenlooper or the CEO of the Colorado Oil and Gas
Association. In fact, it is the first listed grievance in the American Declaration
of Independence against the King of England, something the colonies would eventually
go to war over, and win.
Now that the Colorado
Supreme Court has decided that the laws protecting our communities and people from fracking are invalid, the administrators around these communities will do everything
within their power to enforce that decision. We will be told that the scenario
is unfortunate, but that we are collectively powerless and the only role we can
play is to choose the terms of our own environmental destruction. This is the
line you are already hearing from a political system that favors the opinion of
seven robed individuals over the lives of hundreds of thousands of people, and
you shouldn’t buy a word of it.
We have come to a point
in our history of full spectrum disenfranchisement. The people making decisions
are not doing so on our behalf, and the rules of the game are being written to
keep us at an ever-increasing distance from basic self determination. This is
by design, and entirely so that policies grossly threatening to human and
natural life can be forced upon us with a minimum of effort.
The politicians at every
level are the embodiment of this divide, as they can no longer represent any
common person and carry out the policies of the corporations at the same time.
The dominant political parties and what is being described as a democratic
process to find new rulers has become a farce playing out one state after
another in plain view for all to see. The rich and powerful are becoming
prolific authors of new rules, from stripping us of ballot initiative rights to
enacting broad international corporate pacts that will carry power to ever
greater and more invisible heights.
We, as families, parents,
workers, and community members are under no moral obligation to a system of law
that we did not write, that has no consideration with what is best for our
children and environment, and that will only cause harm to everything we value.
We do not owe the Colorado Oil and Gas Association our health and land, and we
owe nothing to the politicians that are asking us to submit both to this toxic,
corrupt, and brutal industry. We are not the subjects of the corporations,
Governors, judges or the rich, and we have no reason moral or otherwise to hear
or obey them.
As we move into a fuller
disillusionment with this farce of a democracy, let’s make some decisions of
our own. Let’s begin a history where the laws of capitalism are broken and the
laws of the people are upheld. Let’s disturb the peace and refuse a negotiated
surrender to politicians and industry. Bring your kids, your coworkers and your
neighbors and let’s start a revolution of our own.
