[Peace-discuss] Flyer for July4/7 - draft

[C. G. Estabrook]

[Here's a draft for the text of a flyer on the theme of the July 4 
celebration, "America Salutes Free Enterprise," which it was suggested 
might also be used for the July 7 Main Event.  I've attached a slightly 
formatted version. --CGE]


AMERICA SALUTES FREE ENTERPRISE -- BUT NOT CORPORATE CONTROL AND WAR

	"...the issue of peace and people dying for no reason is not a matter 
of 'right or left' but 'right and wrong' ... I believe that partisan 
politics should be left to the wayside when hundreds of thousands of 
people are dying for a war, based on lies, that is supported by 
Democrats and Republicans alike ... if we don’t find alternatives to 
this corrupt 'two' party system our Representative Republic will die and 
be replaced with what we are rapidly descending into with nary a check 
or balance: a fascist corporate wasteland."
	--Cindy Sheehan, 28 May 2007

For more than fifty years Champaign County has held a "Freedom 
Celebration" -- sponsored by local businesses -- on the Fourth of July. 
  The theme of this year's celebration is, "America Salutes Free 
Enterprise," and it is dedicated to "celebrating the contributions that 
Champaign County businesses have had on our local economy."

We at AWARE -- the Anti-War, Anti-Racism Effort, an independent 
Champaign County peace group -- believe that the anniversary of the 
Declaration of Independence is an appropriate time for all of us 
Americans to think about our country's traditions and about the idea of 
free enterprise.

"Enterprise" means work -- it refers to our active engagement in 
projects, the exercise of our talents of head and hands.  Obviously we 
all want to work freely -- we all want to engage in free enterprise. 
Our society should be a free association of people who use their talents 
to produce what they need and want.

As Americans we hold that all people are created equal, "that they are 
endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among 
these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."  Our rights to 
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness mean that our enterprise 
should be free -- we should not be compelled to use our talents for 
purposes not our own.  The lives of "the hireling and slave" are 
condemned in "The Star-Spangled Banner."

But we find as we grow up in present-day America that our enterprise is 
not free.  In order to live we have to sell our work in an economy 
directed by ever-larger corporations, and they are only buying some 
things -- not necessarily what we want to do with our talents.

In the early days of the Untied States, corporations were granted 
charters by the states only if they were formed for a beneficial 
purpose, and then only for a limited time.  But by the beginning of the 
20th-century, corporations maneuvered themselves into being "legal 
persons," with all the rights that the Bill of Rights granted to 
individuals.

This corporate economy now dominates the world and directs the policies 
of the United States.  Our vast system of corporate media, public 
relations, and marketing -- the world's largest by far -- pretends that 
the interests of the few who dominate the corporate economy are 
essentially the same as those of the majority (we're all "persons," 
aren't we?), but in fact they're contradictory:the corporate economy has 
to dominate the enterprise of the majority to continue to enrich itself.

Democracy and the corporate economy are contradictory.  Democracy means 
equality: "one person, one vote."  But the corporate economy means 
inequality: power in society depends on how much money is controlled -- 
"one dollar, one vote." A few people in control of corporations decide 
what should be produced and what jobs should be available.

The corporate economy drives America's criminal wars and occupations in 
the Middle East.  Both Democratic and Republican administrations demand 
that the US control Middle East energy resources -- even thought we 
import very little oil from the Middle East for use in the US -- because 
that gives the US control over America's principal economic competitors, 
Europe and northeast Asia (China,South Korea and Japan).

Free enterprise and peace are impossible until the the corporate economy 
is brought under democratic control.

	*	*	*

AWARE (Anti-War Anti-Racism Effort) is a local Champaign-Urbana peace 
group. We meet every Sunday 5-6:30pm in the basement of the IMC (the old 
post office in Urbana). Visitors and new members are welcome.
http://www.anti-war.net/

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