Uniting to Fight Citizens United
The problem with being pious in politics is that piety has a way of backfiring – and causing people to snicker at you.
Take Citizens United, for example. It’s a right-wing political outfit that hails itself as a righteous champion of free speech – as long as corporations are the ones speaking. It brought the lawsuit that the Supreme Court used in January to decree that tongueless, voiceless corporate entities have a First Amendment “right” to free speech – just like humans. Of course, these lifeless constructs can’t speak, but the Supremes fixed that by declaring that money is the corporate form of speech, therefore unlimited sums of corporate funds can be poured into elections, allowing these speechless special interests to drown out the voices of actual voters.
The vast majority of Americans realized that this is both ridiculous and outrageous, and a grassroots group in Wisconsin responded by setting up a Facebook page to mock the decision and rally public opposition to it. They called their campaign “Citizens United Against Citizens United.” Clever! But it P.O.’d the pious outfit, which promptly took legal action to … well, to stifle the free speech rights of the Wisconsinites.
Unfortunately, the underfunded locals had no money to fight this frivolous legal ploy, so they had to back off. But not too far – they changed the name to “United Citizens Against Citizens United.”
Still, the original name was too good to waste, so Public Citizen, the national corporate watchdog organization that has a very effective legal division, created its own website and Facebook page using the name – daring the pious bully to pick on someone its own size. The bully has not – and you can see the website for yourself at www.citizensunitedagainstcitizensunited.org.
Unshackling Pregnant Inmates
Sometimes I come across an outrage so outrageous that I think: “Surely this can’t be. Someone has to be making this stuff up.”
But, unfortunately, this story is all too true, and something like it might even be happening somewhere near you. It was uncovered in Colorado by Pamela White, the feisty editor of the equally feisty award-winning alternative newspaper Boulder Weekly.
She was doing research for an article on how pregnant inmates are treated (“Pregnant in Prison,” Boulder Weekly, Feb. 18). Not well, it turns out. As one described her experience late in her pregnancy, she was kept in full restraints, including ankle and wrist shackles, as well as a belly belt, while being transported between jails. Then, astonishingly, when she went into labor, she was taken to the hospital where guards – get this – shackled her to the bed, keeping her chained there throughout labor and delivery!
White learned that this abhorrent, painful, humiliating, inhumane, and unbelievable treatment was common in some Colorado jails. “I was so sickened,” she says, “that I had to do something beyond just writing articles.” So, she took the unusual, extra-journalistic step of hand-carrying the story to some of the state’s top lawmakers. “You mean to say that they’re kept under guard, and they’re chained to their beds?” asked a whopper-jawed senator.
Realizing that women in the throes of giving birth are not likely to bolt for the door, appalled legislators asked White – who had become the state expert on this Kafka-esque horror – to draft a bill outlawing it. She did … and they quickly passed it, with Gov. Bill Ritter signing it into law on May 27.
Believe it or not, fewer than 10 states – including Texas, as of 2009 – have anti-shackling laws for inmates in labor. To learn from Pamela White’s experience, visit www.boulderweekly.com.
This article appears in June 25 • 2010.