The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
ACTIVISM AT WORK
Consumer advocate, author Ralph Nader visits New Hartford
NEW HARTFORD >> When people organize themselves and get behind a cause, amazing things can happen. That’s the message Ralph Nader brought when he visited the Beekley Community Library on Saturday afternoon.
Nader, a renowned consumer advocate and author, read excerpts from his 2011 book “Getting Steamed to Overcome Corporatism: Build It Together to Win” to an audience of 55 at the Beekley Community Library at 10 Central Avenue on Saturday morning. After a question-andanswer period, Nader, who has a new book coming out in August, signed copies of the 2011 book, donating all proceeds to the library. He held a similar event later that day in Salisbury at the Scoville Memorial Library.
Reading from his 2011 book, Nader discussed the concept of “corporate personhood,” a legal interpretation of the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment, originally written to protect former slaves, that enables corporations, separate from its associated human beings, some rights and responsibilities enjoyed by those humans.
“Corporate sovereignty is not a human being,” Nader said. “Corporate personhood allows companies to not pay the full taxes and for phony bankruptcies against families who have lost their members to their defective products.”
Nader believes that today, corporate greed runs rampant in various industries in the country. In any other democratic country in the country, every citizen is guaranteed health care coverage “from the cradle to the grave,” said Nader.
Then he promoted activism, reading from the “devil’s advocate” section of his 2011 book that answered criticisms. “You can overcome hopelessness and fatalism. It’s easier than you think.”
He also cited significant U.S. legislation, such as Social Security and Medicare, for which
less than one percent of the U.S. population was responsible for pushing through Congress.
“You can start reform with less than one percent of people,” Nader said. “(The efforts of) less than a couple hundred people led to automobile reform. It is here where the ideologies of left and right converge. To breathe clean air, drink clean water, to have safety regulations — this is where the divides start disappearing.”
This advocacy is the subject of Nader’s book “Unstoppable: The Emerging LeftRight Alliance to Dismantle the Corporate State,” which comes out in August.
Nader said the stakes are high today. “Bridges, roads, and schools are crumbling, and libraries are closing,” he said. “Without civic participation, you don’t have a country worth praising.” He later suggested using the Beekley library as a community center and as a place to start civic-minded organizations.
Not that local activism lacks challenges, he said. “Civic leaders are never on TV or in the press except for op-eds.”
Nader said that today’s citizen leaders also signal a shift of power to people from a slow, inefficient government. “Congress works 110 days per year,” he said. “They just went on a six-week vacation, calling it ‘constituent service.’ They weren’t able to vote on any budget bills.”
As in his upcoming book, he also called for an annual audit of the U.S. Department of Defense, to disclose all government budgets.
“The U.S. Congress calls the Pentagon ‘un-auditable,’” he stated, adding. “It was reported that the Pentagon ‘lost’ nine billion dollars during the first eight months of the Iraq War.” Nader said this phenomenon is part of President Dwight Eisenhower’s prediction during his 1961 farewell address of the military-industrial complex, which is considered an allied vested interest that influences public policy.
Nader, who grew up in Winsted, writes a column for The Winsted Journal and is a founder of the recentlyopened American Museum of Tort Law, which showcases landmark U.S. consumer-law cases. Originally a lawyer in Hartford, Nader made his name with the publication of his book “Unsafe at Any Speed,” a critique of the safety record of American automobile manufacturers.
With the current high stakes in the country, Nader stressed the importance of citizens’ involvement in the political process.
“Of 270 million people,” Nader said, “one million can change things ... You can also be in Congress. Those are 535 men and women with a lot of power.”
Nader is often approached by people discouraged by the political process. “I’ve had one person say again, ‘You can’t fight City Hall. I’m a nobody.’ I hate that phrase ... in addition to having serving in their roles of a spouse and parent, people need to start taking their roles as a citizen more seriously.”
Nader said a billionaire can still enter the democratic process and spend millions on lobbying for issues, but this can also be accomplished by a large, dedicated citizenry.
“It’s got to go from the brain to the gut,” he said. “You need a fire in the belly. The group Mothers Against Drunk Driving was started by a mother who had lost a child to a drunk driver. It was her child.”
“People in the older generation have more leisure time and can work on issues that impact so many young people in the country,” he said.
Nader said that the seeds of his activism were planted by his father, the owner of a Winsted restaurant, where Nader worked in his youth as a dishwasher and shortorder cook.
“I used to come home from school and Dad would ask, ‘Did you learn how to believe or did you learn how to think?’” Nader recounted. “Schools are heavy indoctrinators of propaganda. For example, Columbus invaded America; he didn’t discover America. Civics is propaganda.”
During the question-andanswer period, Nader recommended to his audience a few of his favorite periodicals, including Yes! Magazine and Connections. Visitors asked about Nader’s questions about the upcoming Presidential election.
On Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s recent Vice President pick, Virginia Senator Tim Kaine, Nader commented, “He’s a safe choice. He looks good next to her because he is not taller than her, and doesn’t overshadow her.”
After the reading, visitor Joe Glista of Harwinton, got a signed copied of “Getting Steamed.” He commented, “Nader is one of the true American heroes.”
Audrey Antonich of Glastonbury said, “He makes so much sense, and we need that in this day and age.”
Learn more about Ralph Nader on his website, https:// nader.org