Tom Linzey – Legal Defense Fund

Tom Lenzey talking speaks to the inability for regulation to protect community interests.

Tom explains that throughout this country the legal policies in place have been established to benefit the corporations and not the people. There has also been a weaving of corporate interest throughout government procedure.

He had a very honest view about the reality of regulation saying “The only thing environmental regulations regulate are environmentalists” because it makes the environmentalists predictable. He went on to say that any freedoms that we perceive to have in this so called democracy are wholly contained within the box of rules written by corporations.  Laws are written to support business and not the people in the communities.

In essence, the law always sides with the corporations.  He supported the claim that was made by another; “If a facility [or corporation] has been permitted a legal use, communities are prohibited from banning that legal use.” This is law on the books which Tom works against every day.

Tom talking about his experiences in Pennsylvania fighting to keep corporate hog farms out of the community.

This is astounding to me and some what hard to believe but it supports what I have seen in my limited experience in the education profession where in I saw the real truth that teachers and faculty don’t decide curriculum, local businesses on boards do. Tom  painted a very sad picture how communities can’t win against corporations because they are playing in a game for which corporations have written the rules Tom correctly continued to argued that we need a major paradigm shift on the local and federal level to change the rules of the game.

If that’s not enough lets add some insult to the injury. The one solace that the residents take away from the legal struggle is that they were some how hurting the corporations by costing them a fortune in legal defense fees.  They hoped that they were at the very least slowing down the corporate hog farms and Wal-marts by forcing them to spend time and money in court. Unfortunately the legal defense fees paid by corporations are tax deduction which they can write off as a necessary business expense.

Tom finishes his key note with a somber picture of the road ahead by calling for a rewrite of the constitution to return local power.

Tom concluded with a reminder to the audience that we should abandon all hope.  That is to say that we should abandon the notion of hope defined by a desire for some one to come and save us from the situation because no one will save us.  Not the government and certainly not the latest wave of green businesses.  We are the only ones who care and are willing to do what it takes to save our communities.

Needless to say, Tom had some very thought provoking comments and I will be attending his workshop tomorrow. In the mean time, I am going to try and upload a small segment of video that I was able to capture from Tom’s lecture before my digital camera’s memory card filled up. Viewers should be advised that there is some profanity contained within the video if I am unable to upload it in a format that allows bleeping.