Protecting the Rights of
People & Nature From
the Local Up
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Hello and thank you for all your generous gifts during our end-of-year fundraiser. We’re off to a strong start in the new year with just about $6,000 raised from Giving Tuesday through December. We are ever grateful for your support. In this issue of the newsletter, we have an essay on refusing false choices and reclaiming our right to decide the choices that best serve the greater good, an update on Paul’s first ever book on Community Rights, and the latest from our newsfeed.
– Michelle
Michelle W. Martin, CRUS Social Media Coordinator
Corporate Cookie Plates vs. Life-affirming Choices
There’s a strategy employed by many parents of toddler-sized children when the inevitable, yet sad time comes to leave the playground—perhaps you are familiar with it. The technique gives children a sense of control by offering carefully curated choices. For example, rather than saying abruptly, “okay, let’s go,” which might be met with cries of despair, one might say “Do you want to do the monkey bars or the slide one more time before we go?” or “For our last round of tag do you want me to chase you or do you want to chase me?”
It’s only a matter of time however before the kids catch on. Eventually, they realize that this sense of control is merely a ruse and will reply to such questions with “Neither! I want to keep playing!”
Or better yet, is when they try out the strategy on an adult: “Are you giving me the tub of ice cream or that plate of cookies for dessert?”
Typically parents don’t go along with a toddler’s reverse engineered choices…So why then are We the People going along with the corporate equivalent of ice cream tubs or cookie plates?
We care about the health of our youth when it comes to overdoing sweets and we care about the health of the planet that ultimately supports our own well-being. Just as we provide appropriate choices for those in our care, we should frame our own political debate, choose who our candidates will be, and elect the best ones to serve us. Somehow we’ve lost our way and are going along with corporate engineered choices that even the most savvy kids would put a stop to…
Read Michelle’s full essay HERE
Book Update
We have had some unfortunate delays in finalizing the formatting of the book’s pages. Our new estimate is that we’ll be shipping individual books to donors and customers in mid to late March. And we just changed the retail price from $18 to $17.76…yes, you read that right.
Essential CR News from the Web
New Podcast Features Rights of Nature in Minnesota
Can Rights of Nature Laws Make a Difference? In Ecuador, They Already Are
Press Release, Chile: The Rights of Nature are Analyzed in the Constitutional Convention
Buffers do not mean protection from harm
Press Release: Court Stops Mountain Valley Pipeline from Further Jeopardizing Endangered Species
Chile is in for a mining boom. Could a new constitution prevent environmental catastrophe
203rd Anniversary of court granting so-called “rights” to corporations
Want to help further the work of Community Rights US?
There are many ways to support our work protecting the rights of people and nature. You can donate via PayPal or Action Network or Netgiver (no fees!). Through this link, you can sign up for one-time or monthly recurring donations quickly and easily. Check it out and consider supporting Community Rights US, so together we can take our country back from corporate rule, and reclaim our rightful authority to govern ourselves (from the local up).Photo credits: heart in the tree by Chandan Chaurasia on Unsplash; Mockaroon on Unsplash; Daisies in Ukrainp Photo by Oleh Morhun on Unsplash; “Banyan Tree Roots” by moonjazz