OccupyForum presents
Information, discussion & community! Monday Night Forum!!
Occupy Forum is an opportunity for open and respectful dialogue
on all sides of these critically important issues
The Presidential Debates: Mega-events? High Stakes? Or BULLSHIT?
At OccupyForum, we don’t really have the stomach to watch the Clinton-Trump debate, although lurid curiosity may get the better of us for a few minutes. After we turn it off in disgust and despair, we may instead turn to something Ralph Nader is putting together called Breaking Through Power.
On September 26th through September 29th in Washington DC, Nader presides over a “civic marathon.” Panels, speakers and the public will discuss ways to overcome apathy and build civic skills, shift power from corporations to the people, DC Statehood, tort law and the civil justice system, and more.
“To have a democratic society that brings out the best in its citizens, people have to show up to vote, to attend city council meetings, rallies, marches, and other serious gatherings that reflect the public interest. They also need to support progressive candidates and run for office.
Whether it is empowering consumers, getting corporate money out of politics, knowing the safeguards for whistleblowing or building public opinion behind your proposals, advocates who are among the best in the country are ready to share their experience and enthusiasm with you at the Breaking Through Power conference.” Ralph Nader
Below, find the speakers and subjects from the first day that we’ll be viewing. Together we’ll decide which to watch and discuss.
Join us at OccupyForum for an evening of absurdity ameliorated by Ralph Nader’s unflagging optimism in the face of insanity!
Announcements will follow.
Donations to OccupyForum to cover our costs are encouraged; no one turned away!
Breaking Through Power (from the website)
Visit
breakingthroughpower.org to see the conference speakers people who long ago decided they were going to dedicate their time and talent to make our country responsive to the necessities and aspirations of its people.
The First Day – September 26th – is about building civic skills ls and breaking through apathy. You can see David Freeman talk from his experience of advising presidents, governors, and running four big public utilities, including the vast Tennessee Valley Authority, wisely lay out a practical path to economical renewable energy with environmental respect.
Whether you see yourself as a dissatisfied voter, a civically-minded teacher, a curious student, a fed up consumer, a dismayed taxpayer, or if you are looking for ways to make your community better, you’ll come away with knowledge, tools for action, and connections with others who want to make a difference.
Have you been ripped off? Hear Oliver Hall of the Center for Competitive Democracy talk about using small claims court or the people’s courts. They are located everywhere.
Thinking about a community-based business? Listen to the nation’s expert, Neil Seldman, from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, talk about how community business is revolutionary.
Want to engage with the safe, nutritious food movement? You’ll be shown the way by the leading safe food advocate who has done it for 45 years, Dr. Michael Jacobson.
Let’s say you’re a teacher and you want to convey civic skills to your students and motivate them to overcome their apathy and work for needed change. You couldn’t have a better day’s retreat. There is even a talk on the civic engagement of business leaders by Mitch Rofsky, who founded the delightfully pro-consumer motor club called the Better World Club.
The Second Day is a huge eye-opener and brain-filler. Did you know that “We the People” actually own the greatest wealth in our country? I’m referring to the vast public lands, onshore and offshore, the research and development, funded by taxpayers, that enabled today’s new industries, the huge capital amassed in the form of pension and mutual funds and individual shareholdings. But corporations control their uses and reap the profits, abetted by their influence over Congress and government officials in Washington. Imagine if we took back reasonable control over those assets that we already own. A society beyond our optimistic dreams would emerge, assuming that we provided “eternal vigilance.”
Well, that’s what Day Two is all about – our savings, our natural resources, and our other “commons” being shaped to fit your needs and those of your descendants.
Day Three responds to people’s interest in ways to start new citizen groups by the heads of groups each exhibiting a different model. The afternoon is devoted to D.C. statehood – the New Columbia to replace the Washington D.C. colony and abolish the servitude that blocks the residents of our nation’s capital from having voting representatives in Congress.
Day Four, held at historic Constitution Hall, celebrates the two great liberation movements that provide us with self-actuating freedoms to have our day in court and make contracts fair. Naturally, the big corporations are irritated by challenges to their overreaching, so over the decades they have weakened the law of torts – the remedies for wrongful injuries – and nd perfected the anti-consumer, one-sided, fine-printed contracts that await you when you enter into the marketplace of goods and services. Our rights to fair contracts and to use tort law are under constant attack from the promoters of crony capitalism. Attend the Breaking Through Power Conference and learn what you can do to defend yourself.
You’ll be engrossed by advocates who have represented successfully people like you and scholars who can clearly demonstrate what is at stake when we decide to strengthen the fundamental freedoms to use tort law.
Consider these four days as the Super Bowl of Civic Action that can equip you to seek justice and protect yourself from wrongful impacts on your living condition.”, 28, 29 SEPTEMBER 2016
Featured Speakers
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