Bringing Move-To-Amend to the Sarasota County Commission

50+ Move To Amend supporters attend County Commission meeting 

The power to place a non-binding resolution on Sarasota County ballots in November rests with the Sarasota County Commission. County resident, Kindra Muntz, put together possible wording for such a resolution.

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STRAW BALLOT QUESTION: 

Only Human Beings Are Endowed with Constitutional Rights

Should the rulings of Citizens United and related Supreme Court cases be effectively overturned by an amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America to clarify that only human beings, and not corporations, labor unions and other artificial entities, are endowed with constitutional rights, and that money is not speech, and therefore regulating political contributions and spending is not equivalent to limiting political speech? 

 Yes _____            No_____

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Kindra along with three other Sarasota County residents - James Keeney, Arlene Sweeting, and Rhana Bazzini - all spoke in support of such a ballot initiative during the Public Comment period.

Democracy Awakening in Sarasota

Thousands of people converged on Washington, D.C. this weekend, as part of Democracy Awakening - a movement to demand a democracy that works for all Americans. Elected officials must be accountable to the people, not just to Big Money from corporations and wealthy donors. On April 15, 2016, citizens of Manatee and Sarasota counties hosted a Democracy Awakening rally in solidarity.


Andy Mele, of the the Manatee-Sarasota Sierra Club, gave a rundown of the Supreme Court decisions that opened the floodgates for Big Money campaign contributions. Lou Murray, of Newtown Nation, gave concrete examples of voter suppression in African American communities in Manatee County. Valerie Buchand, of Newtown Nation, spoke to the power of the people. Susie Copeland, of the Manatee County NAACP, focused on getting folks to vote. Kindra Muntz, of the Sarasota Alliance for Fair Elections, detailed many of the election reform bills stalled in Congress right now. Charles McKenzie, of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, spoke to the importance of voting. Arlene Sweeting, of the Peace Education and Action Center, spoke about the need for reform.

Other local groups to endorse the rally included the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Venice Social Justice Committee, the Nation Group, National Nurses Organizing Committee/National Nurses United-Florida, American Association of University Women-Manatee Chapter, In Granny D’s Footsteps, United Nations Organization, and Occupy Bradenton.

Democracy Spring

Thousands of protesters from around the U.S. are descending on Washington D.C. They will be rallying, marching, lobbying, and engaging in acts of civil disobedience to shine the spotlight on the failings of our democracy. Rhana Bazzini, along with over 3000 others, has agreed to risk arrest as part of a non-violent direct action. She took the train from Sarasota to be part of this Democracy Spring.



Rhana made it to Washington and attended the weekend training for those who were willing to risk arrest. Rhana reported that there were so many people in attendance, that they had to schedule a second training to accommodate the overflow volunteers. Yesterday, over 400 were arrested. More are preparing for arrest each day this week.

And yet, there was almost no corporate media coverage of these mass arrests. The Intercept reports that yesterday,

"CNN did not devote any coverage to the actions. MSNBC mentioned the protests for approximately 12 seconds, while Fox News mentioned the arrests and discussed the protests for about 17 seconds."

Next weekend, larger crowds will gather for Democracy Awakening. They will press Congress to pass reforms to ensure that everyone can cast a vote that counts and that the power of people’s voices is not measured by the size of their wallet. This historic mobilization intends to define the national debate. But will the corporate media cover it?