Draft 2 of email to send to all who have signed the WTPE petition as of June 30th :

Hello Fellow Citizens:

     We The People-Eugene has just passed its six-month birthday, and we are reaching out to thank you for your support. As you know, in response to the 2010 Citizens United decision, we presented a petition to the people of Eugene, declaring:  

 We The People-Eugene call for reclaiming democracy from the corrupting effects of undue corporate influence  by amending the U.S. Constitution to establish that:

     1. Corporations are not entitled to constitutional rights granted to persons: and therefore

     2. Regulating corporate political contributions and spending is not equivalent to limiting political speech. 

See http://storyofstuff.org/citizensunited/ for more info about a Supreme Court that accepts money-- such as corporate contributions to political campaigns -- as "free speech." This 2010 Citizens United decision that limiting corporate contributions would be unconstitutional enables corporations to spend unlimited amounts of money in our elections; in her video, Annie Leonard shows how this was possible and what it means.

     In speaking to you, the people of Eugene, we have collected over 1700 signatures! It feels great knowing that our neighbors also seek to challenge corporate control of our political system. We see a common thread in our community; a common understanding that corporate personhood is a legal fiction and that corporations are not at all equivalent to real people. Corporations have accrued constitutional rights to defend their abusive practices, putting at risk the environment and economy, local cultures, and all lives they touch, including employees, consumers, children, animals and now even the genes of plants. Humans face prison or execution for serious crimes, but corporate "persons" typically face easily affordable fines for causing even fatal harm. Financially, this inequality of status and power is only more obvious. The annual profits of a single corporation can exceed the entire economy of most countries and corporations can spend unlimited amounts of money to influence electoral politics. Human civil society finds itself at an overwhelming disadvantage and we are delighted you agree that this is fundamentally undemocratic. We hope to continue this discussion with you and to strengthen this common thread we share.

The mission of We the People Eugene is to create democracy by building social movements dedicated to:

• Ending the excessive influence of corporations and other moneyed interests over our political and economic systems, and
• Building peoples based democratic communities founded on the natural rights of humans and the environment.

     We are now planning the next steps for We The People-Eugene and, as we look at what we have already accomplished in both contributing to this essential discussion and in proposing an Amendment to resolve the issue, we recognize how vital your support has been to our work. Thank you for joining us in this discussion and for voicing your support!

     We also would like to extend an invitation to you! We will be hosting a Teach-In  Wednesday, July 27th, where Stan Taylor, lawyer and LCC Political Science professor, will be presenting a talk entitled, "Global Economics and the Threat to Democracy." This talk will focus on the global economic structures established at Bretton Woods in 1944, the transformation of these structures into instruments of finance capital in the 1970's, and the attack on the ability of government to legislate on behalf of their citizens. We invite you to join us at 7p.m. in Harris Hall, 125 E 8th street, Eugene! 

If you would like more information about these issues check out : http://www.wethepeopleeugene.org/learn-more/

If you are interested in contributing to our efforts, please go to : http://www.wethepeopleeugene.org/contribute/.

If you are interested in petitioning your neighbors and discussing this issue with your community at large, please call (541) 255-2946 or email wethepeopleeugene@gmail.com!.

We thank you for your support and hope to see you in July!

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Thanks for your willingness to let the outline go, Charlie, but I think it's a great outline and, being the pack-rat I am, I can hardly let good work go to waste! I'm sure we'll be able to use it in the future!

Charlie's original outline :

Suggested information to include in an email to those who have signed our petition:

1.  Thanks for your interest in challenging corporate rule and in the group We the People - Eugene.

2.  We the People - Eugene is a recently formed group that has a mission to --- (put in our new mission statement)

3.  We have a couple of events coming up that you may be interested in - (ice cream social details, Stan's presentation on recent history related to the financial meltdown)

4.  If you are interested in becoming more involved, please contact us using the following web site ----

http://www.wethepeopleeugene.org/contact-us/

5.  If you are interested in learning more, you may find these web sites useful ---

A link to our website:  http://www.wethepeopleeugene.org/

The following are links to talks Thomas Linzey and Mari Margill of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) gave at the 2009 Bioneers convention

Thomas Linzey Bioneer talk – part 1

Thomas Linzey Bioneer talk – part 2

Thomas Linzey Bioneer talk – part 3

Thomas Linzey Bioneer talk – part 4

Mari Margil Bioneer talk – part 1

Mari Margil Bioneer talk – part 2

Mari Margil Bioneer talk – part 3

Thomas Linzey – maintaining control over resources – part 1

Thomas Linzey – maintaining control over resources – part 2

Thomas Linzey – maintaining control over resources – part 3

Thomas Linzey – challenging corporations

Interview of Thomas Linzey and Mari Margil at Bioneers (2009)