Z Magazine published this OpEd on August 20, 2020. Read it on ZNet.
Community Rights US submitted the following OpEd to The Oregonian – Portland, Oregon’s daily corporate newspaper – on August 16, 2020. Titled “A National Emergency Requires a Bold Local Response”. Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, their Opinion Editor rejected our submission with this odd comment: “[W]ith so many op-eds coming in on very timely topics, I don’t foresee using it. There’s just so much news happening right now and the piece doesn’t have quite the urgency or focus.” Frankly, it’s hard for us to imagine a topic more “timely” or urgent than this one! But we will now be submitting it to other Portland newspapers, and we urge our readers to share it widely in your social networks. And if you’d like to do more to get this OpEd circulating – perhaps even if YOUR local paper – click HERE for more ideas.
The OpEd:
The United States is increasingly a “failed state.”
We are now in the grips of multiple simultaneous emergencies:
* 40% of U.S. renters risking eviction
* Half of small businesses may never reopen
* 50 million people unemployed
* Epidemic police violence
* Upwards of 300,000 Covid deaths by December
* Catastrophic climate destabilization
And what are Congress and our President doing to boldly respond? Almost nothing.
We cannot afford to continue waiting for government rescue. It’s time for Plan B.
Historically, We the People established our federal government and business corporations to serve us, with duties and responsibilities to act in the public interest. Corporations were chartered “to obey all laws, to serve the common good, and to cause no harm.” Unfortunately, corporate money and power are now so entrenched in our federal and state governments that our elected leaders no longer serve the public interest.
Have we forgotten that we are We the People – citizens with tremendous Constitutional authority to govern ourselves? In this moment of national crisis, We are the leaders we’ve been waiting for. Our time to act is now. And our greatest power resides locally.
How do we most effectively organize locally? Since 1999, the Community Rights movement has assisted 200 communities in twelve states to pass locally enforceable laws. These communities were facing their own emergencies – corporations coming in and (legally!) poisoning their water supply, or (legally) dumping toxic sludge on farmland, or (legally) spraying pesticides from the air on farms and forests where people live. They used their constitutional powers to protect themselves. But first, they had to become brave, and get organized. We Portlanders can respond just as boldly to OUR big emergencies.
Portland’s City Council passed a Housing State of Emergency Declaration in 2015, enabling additional law-making authority. Our housing emergency is even graver now. Plus a small business closure emergency. And an unemployment emergency. And a police violence emergency. In a crisis of this magnitude, when state and federal governments are either unwilling or unable to protect the citizenry, local governing authority MUST be utilized to its fullest extent, even if it means challenging so-called “settled law” to do so.
Portland’s City Council – or Portland voters – could enact a variety of groundbreaking Community Rights laws if We begin to take ourselves more seriously by exercising our constitutional right of self-government. Examples include:
* Prohibit residential and business landlords from evicting their existing tenants.
* Prohibit banks from foreclosing on Portland home owners.
* Prohibit utility companies from shutting off essential services to homes and businesses.
* Transfer upwards of 50% of our current police budget towards providing more effective community safety programs.
* Prohibit local police from responding militarily to First-Amendment-protected protests.
* Place at least 5% of Portland’s annual budget into a newly designed “participatory budgeting” process. And increase the amount by 5% each year.
Unfortunately, our Democrat-led state government continues to move in the opposite direction – taking local power from The People. In 2016, Oregon passed SB 1573, drafted by the Oregon Homebuilders Association, violating Oregon’s Constitutional guarantee of local “home rule” and self-governance against legislative interference in community affairs. Once again, Oregonians were sold out to the highest bidder by our state legislature and Governor Brown.
If We the People are committed to protecting our communities in this moment of extraordinary peril, the Oregon state government should not be allowed to reduce the decision-making authority of local governments or their residents.
A Community Rights local law-making approach is exactly the correct response to such state over-reach.
Just imagine how Portland could become a beacon of light for the rest of the nation. Imagine if other cities followed in our footsteps. Imagine if We the People began to recognize that our most nationally transformative work could be done locally.
We are living through the largest social and economic and environmental emergency since the Civil War. We the People have enormous constitutional authority (and responsibility) to act as the primary decision-makers when our government is failing to do its job.
Are We up for the task? Do We have any other choice?
If you’re ready to be part of the change, please contact us: www.CommunityRights.US/Portland.
Paul Cienfuegos, Director, Community Rights US
David Delk, National Co-Chair, Alliance for Democracy
Bryan Lewis, Board President, Community Rights US
Would you like to help us get this OpEd to be seen by many more people from across the US? Perhaps even republished in YOUR local newspaper? Are you potentially interested in your community launching the kind of campaign we are describing here? If so, please email us and tell us about your interests and relevant experience. Thank you!