Corporations hold the real power

Despite the results of the recent elections, most Americans are truly unaware of what is going on. Many of us are foolish enough to believe that we live in a “Christian” country with concern for “family values” in a “free market” that is committed to “spreading democracy” worldwide. America has sadly become a corporate state, and as a result, corporations have consumed everything about life, including the reporting of world events (the news) and spirituality. Like coal-mining firms and asbestos manufacturers in the past, corporations with overwhelmingly strong financial and technical communications resources mislead the public for profit. Pharmaceutical and tobacco-industry firms even create lobbying organizations to misinform the public, suppress debate and discourage any investigative dissent. These third parties are literally Trojan horses with consumer-friendly names that suggest they are concerned with the environment or health. These third parties spread misinformation regarding product safety, global warming, deforestation and other issues that affect everyone from seniors to the handicapped to the everyday citizen. The corporations and elected officials steal from us in the name of truth, God and country. This coalition creates and repeats buzzwords such as “liberal,” “anti-business,” “junk science,” “tree huggers” and “free market” in order to “defeat the competition” and to “brand” their “product” in the minds of “consumers” (us). You may recognize some of these as words used by court jesters Rush Limbaugh, Anne Coulter and Michelle Malkin, but there are much more powerful people behind the scenes. But none of this would happen without the apathy and even cooperation of the American public, which is self-absorbed and largely ignorant of its own government and history. Jeffrey Lehman, Northfield - Courier Post, November 17, 2006