Candidate Nader Says State and Federal Disregard of Mountain Top Removal Shows How Corporate Control Leaves Americans and The Environment Worse Off Ralph Nader, America�s leading consumer advocate and Presidential candidate, made his first campaign appearance in Charleston, West Virginia this Friday to describe how the environment will be systematically destroyed by unchecked corporate control of our political system. He cited as an example the social and environmental devastation brought about by mountaintop removal. Speaking to an audience at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship he advocated a Citizens� Alliance to fight back. Nader�s speech discussed state and federal collaboration in mountaintop removal and how corporate control of our political process threatens the environment and undermines environmental laws. Nader, an Independent candidate for President in West Virginia, discussed the "democracy gap" that has left Americans worse off when we use corporate yardsticks rather than human yardsticks to measure economic progress. Nader said there was no better example than the failure to factor into any calculation of economic wealth or progress the massive destruction, both social and environmental, of mountaintop removal, the technique in which the tops of Appalachian mountain tops are literally blown off with dynamite to reach coal seams below, and waste is dumped into the waterways. Mountaintop removal buried thousands of miles of streams in Appalachia and is destroying one of the most productive temperate forests in the world. But the cost of this destruction in our commonwealth is not weighed against corporate profit when government permits and even encourages strip mining. Even though hundreds of square miles have been clear-cut and flattened and whole communities have been bought out and scattered to the wind, this also did not figure into the equation, according to Nader because calculation by government appears to be directed at corporate profit, not human cost. Nader said this permanent devastation and its impact on generations was ignored when placing a value on economic progress because the very logic of the government decisions have been defined on corporate terms, not democratic terms. The profits of absentee corporations have been the primary consideration. The whole effort by the Clinton-Gore administration and state elected government to protect and promote strip mining and seek ways to undermine a federal court�s injunction against issuing new permits has been guided by the coal industry and its proxies in government. Capitulation by government to the coal industry speaks volumes about corporate ownership of our political process, according to Nader. West Virginia is not alone. Despite record economic growth and stock market highs, Nader provided an array of deplorable conditions that demonstrate how the majority of Americans are not benefiting from the "unconstrained behavior of big business subordinating our democracy to the control of a corporate plutocracy that knows few self-imposed limits to the spread of its power to all sectors of our society." Nader cited the more than 20% of children growing up in poverty during the past decade, by far the highest among comparable western countries; the minimum wage as lower today, inflation-adjusted, than in 1979; the increasing number of Americans without health insurance, and record level of personal bankruptcies. After years of working, millions of Americans are essentially broke. Consumer indebtedness is at a record 6.2 trillion and personal savings are at a record low. "There is a crisis of democracy in our country. Over the past twenty years, big business has increasingly dominated our political process in state legislatures and Congress. Many politicians have been hijacked, becoming brokers for their corporate masters. The civil society�s right to participate in power and shape critical policy issues has been increasingly blocked because of the domination of the corporate government over our political government. From elections to the three branches of government, this situation has created a widening �democracy gap,�" Nader said. "I�m running for President because the only way we are going to regain control of our political institution is to help build a progressive political movement that will break up the concentration of wealth and power movement � a plutocracy that reigns over our democracy. Many of our greatest historical leaders, from Jefferson to FDR, have denounced �the excesses of the monied interests� and their incompatibility with a democratic society." Nader talked about the need to close the democracy gap by direct political means. Nader called for a "sustained effort to wrest control of our democracy from corporate government and restore it to the political government under the control of citizens." Nader quoted Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis who declared for the ages, "We can have a democracy in this country or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we cannot have both." Nader said that his campaign will highlight active and productive citizens who practice democracy. The Nader 2000 campaign will seek the engagement of a million people who pledge to raise a hundred hours and a hundred dollars to overcome ballot barriers, to get the vote out, and to remove the power inequalities that loom over us. "Widespread reform will not flourish without a fairer distribution of power for the key roles of voter, citizen, worker, taxpayer and consumer." In a recent Zogby poll of 842 likely voters nationwide, Ralph Nader came in third with 5.7 percent of the vote among likely voters, outdistancing Pat Buchanan who polled 3.6 percent. The poll showing Nader as the leading third-party candidate was conducted April 1-7, just seven weeks after Nader announced his candidacy. Nader is on the ballot in 15 states, and is collecting signatures for ballot access in all other states. Volunteers are helping to collect 13,000 signatures in West Virginia to give the citizens of West Virginia the chance to choose Nader in November. For more information see votenader.org. ### Respectfully, Jay Fenello, New Media Strategies ------------------------------------ http://www.fenello.com 770-392-9480 Aligning with Purpose(sm) ... for a Better World ------------------------------------------------ "If we want to change the world, we have to begin by changing ourselves" -- Deepak Chopra
