Democracy for Howard County

John Nichols: Measure T takes aim at corporate power

Madison Capital Times

Sopoci-Belknap is absolutely right when she portrays today's vote as nothing less than the beginning of "the process of reclaiming our county" from the "tyranny" of concentrated economic and political power.

Surely Tom Paine would have agreed. It was Paine who suggested to the revolutionaries of 1776, as they dared to challenge the most powerful empire on the planet, that: "We have it in our power to begin the world over again. A situation similar to the present hath not happened since the days of Noah until now. The birthday of the new world is at hand, and a race of men, perhaps as numerous as all Europe contains, are to receive their portion of freedom from the events of a few months."

It is time to renew the American experiment, to rebuild its battered institutions on the solid foundation of empowered citizens and regulated corporations. Let us hope that the spirit of '76 prevails today in Humboldt County and that it spreads until that day when American democracy is guided by the will of the people rather than the campaign contribution checks of the corporations that are the rampaging empires of our age.