The importance of discussing rights for communities has come out of the abuse of certain “corporate rights”. Over time, corporations have fought hard to gain access to constitutional rights that were originally established for living breathing people.

Since corporations are immortal, have incredibly powerful interests backing them, and have a lot of legal tools available to them that common people do not have access to, there have been uncountable numbers of situations in which these corporate rights have been used to trump the rights of individuals, communities and nature, often resulting in irreversible damage that will impact people for generations to come.

As a point of discussion we thought it would  interesting to share this recent statement by Mari Margil, a friend and activist.

The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund is the only public interest law firm in the U.S. that has worked with municipalities to question whether corporate “rights” can coexist with the democratic rights of communities to local self-government.

Those communities have recognized that corporate rights and privileges are routinely wielded to override democratic decision making and undermine efforts to protect the environment and public health, local economies and local agriculture. Through the adoption of local, binding laws, these communities are pioneering a new structure of law which does not recognize the rights and privileges of corporations.

Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission Decision

Today’s U.S. Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission – giving corporations the ability to directly give money to candidates for federal office under the Constitution’s First Amendment – was inevitable.  It represents a logical expansion of corporate constitutional “rights” – which include the rights of persons which have been judicially conferred upon corporations. “Personhood” rights mean that corporations possess First Amendment rights to free speech, along with a litany of other rights that are secured to persons under the federal Bill of Rights.

Mari (red hair) speaking to the President of the Pachamama Alliance about constitutionally recognizing the Rights of Nature in Ecuador.

In order to reverse decisions like Citizens United, the whole concept of corporate “rights” must be examined, and how corporations possessing “rights” interferes with the exercise of rights by people, communities, and nature.  And, it’s not simply that corporations have “personhood” rights.  It goes well beyond that.Today’s structure of law gives corporations a spectrum of legal and constitutional rights which they routinely wield against people, communities, and nature.  Corporations have more rights, for example, than the communities in which they seek to do business.  They have rights which they use to lobby Congress, impact elections, to decide for us what we eat, whether mountaintops are blown off or not, whether there are fish in the oceans, and on and on.  Coupling their wealth with constitutional and other legal rights guarantees that they write the laws which determine these things, along with defining the debate that leads to the adoption of the new laws.

Thus the context for understanding today’s decision is that we have a minority set of corporate interests, empowered by government, which wield their rights against a majority.  It is the history of this nation.  Whether with the Abolitionists, the Suffragists, the Civil Rights Movement – all found it necessary to build movements of people to drive rights into law – rights for slaves, rights for women, rights of African Americans – which necessarily meant eliminating rights for a minority such as the slaveholder.  In the end, it is our constitutional structure of law that purposefully placed the rights of property and commerce over the rights of people, communities, and nature.

In some ways, the Citizens United ruling is merely part of a predetermined destiny set by a 1700’s constitutional structure which placed greater priority on the rights of property and commerce than on people and nature.  Reversing Citizens United means reversing that constitutional legacy.

And today – those who recognize that we do not have democracy when corporations located thousands of miles away are making decisions about our community instead of us, who recognize that we cannot have sustainability so long as corporations are able to decide how clean our air is and our water is, who recognize that we’ll never have true health care reform so long as corporations have greater access to our elected representatives than the people who voted for them – to those people – today’s decision should be understood as just another brick in the wall, another step in a direction that will only continue unless and until a real movement for the rights of people, communities, and nature is built.

That is the work we are doing.  We hope you will join us.

Meet Beth Mort…

Photo-op at the FBC Prom Ride 2009

As you can see, Beth has a fun-loving personality and knows how to have a good time. She did a stint at the Lands Council and does countless other amazing things with her friends over at Pedals2People, Spokane’s hip grassroots community bicycling group. Because of her busy activist commitments she hasn’t yet been able to make it to any Violets events, but a Ladies Night in the (bike) Shop is potentially in the works (see end of interview).

Here we talk to Beth about an opportunity she has been nominated for on behalf of P2P. You can vote in favor of Beth for a $10,000 Grants For Change award to establish a comprehensive bike and wellness training program for youth in Spokane. You have to log in to the Nau site to vote, but they have great design principles (see: chrysalis dress) so sign in and represent!

What is the best way to help improve “bikeability” in Spokane?

I am going to give my primary focus right now as my answer.  Cyclists need to communicate with each other and discuss laws, road rules, biking etiquette, helmets, etc.  A movement is much more visible if everyone moves along together.  For cyclists, of all bents, I think that the more similarity auto drivers and pedestrians see, the better case can be made for bikeability in Spokane. For example, more people need to be confident enough to learn how to ride with traffic.  It is confusing for beginning cyclists and drivers to see some people riding on the sidewalk, and some people riding in the street.  It is even more challenging and frustrating to have riders going against traffic. Following some set of rules or etiquette makes this transition a whole lot more safe and fun, and helps set an example that bikes and cars can get along on the road.

These simple choices provide a consistent visual to the public that biking is fairly predictable and common. I realize that is a bit idealist, but even if half of the riders that are not following the “rules of the road” spontaneously began to do so, the impression about how to bike in our urban Spokane environment would be much more clear. Of course bicycle lanes and signs are important to bikeability as well. These are dependent on funding and political will so swaying those two things in some focused way is a key priority as well. My main mission is determining how we can best get the majority of cyclists to be a collective, informed group that makes a presence to the auto community.

Here are the rules I follow:

• Ride with the flow of traffic. Don’t ride against traffic – it is really dangerous and confusing!
  
• Ride in the street. Resist the temptation of the sidewalk!
  
• Wear a helmet. There are a variety of fun colors available and stickers can personalize them too.
  
• Be predictable. Try not to swerve. There will be exceptions like glass, other road shrapnel and potholes.
  
• Use hand signals. Take your time and carefully get in turn lanes when you need to.
  
• Be weary of car doors. (I was almost ‘doored’ once.) Know that drivers are supposed to leave you 3ft.
  
• Don’t run red lights. Act as if you are a vehicle because well…. YOU ARE!
  

In two years I have only had two very minor crabby interactions.  Not a big deal.  I use routes that are designated as bike routes, like Howard Street.  I do also use some residential streets but prefer main arterials because they are generally safer. Some of the fear people have is in fact due more to perception and hype than reality.  Of course there are some horror stories out there but I know just as many or more that are auto/auto accidents.  Ultimately, we never lose risk in our lives no matter what choices we make.

Pedals2People has several volunteer opportunities.  We are always looking for people who can learn the “front end” of the shop on garage nights.  This entails taking money for parts, matching people up with mechanics, helping folks get parts they are looking for, and other small tasks.  We can also use more mechanics too.

We have a number of events, mostly free tune-ups at neighborhood festivals, that we are attending for the rest of the summer and often can use extra volunteers to air tires, fix flats, run the “front end” of the event and do the tabling part of the work.  Our next neighborhood event actually is the Hillyard Festival this Saturday, August 8th from 10-2.  This is a great party all around, I love the Hillyard Community!

We also are in need of folks with website experience, secretarial experience and just an interest in helping us streamline our systems.  We are also searching for a new location that is closer to the downtown and more centrally located in general.  We have some specific parameters and could use all the help we could get trying to get the word out and have eyes looking for us.

On the end of just getting in to work on your bike, we are open at the garage (in the alley between Garfield and Scott on the South Hill off 43rd) Mondays 8-10pm; Wednesday 6-8pm.  You can rent stand space for $5/hr and use all our tools, stands, and have the help of mechanics and manuals.  We have a great program called Build-a-Beater, where you can build a bicycle from the frame out.  It costs $50 and you have about 4 weeks to finish.

We are also just trying out a Ladies Night at the Garage on the last week of the month.  My hope here is that any ladies who are intimidated because they don’t know the anatomy and vernacular of bicycles can come up and learn in a comfortable environment.  The first one we had in July was an absolute success.  We also just need to have input on how ladies would like them to run.

How did you get nominated for this grant opportunity and what would it do?

I heard about this grant opportunity from my friend Kim Powe.  Just a little plug for her…. she has co-founded an amazing website 4R Sustainability and their motto is “Bridging the gap between business as usual and the new, green economy”.  They provide some incredible services.   She is here in Spokane too!  I forwarded this on to the P2P crew and was nominated.

The grant would fund a multi-faceted bike mechanic after-school program for middle school students.  The beauty here is that a program like this would bring education, empowerment, health and just the fun of riding together in a meaningful way. The students who would participate in this program would gain great skills in bike mechanics and how to ride safely in the urban environment and then could pass this on to their community.

If this sounds like something you would like to see more of in Spokane, please take a moment and vote Beth Mort for a Nau Grants For Change award.