Cities reinvent New America

Remember New America?

New America was my breakaway republic of old. Ignored by the right-wing media, New America was a serious ongoing response to attacks on our constitutional liberties, the cavalcade of fail that was the 104th Congress, and not being counted in the 2000 census.

These days, I wouldn't even get to the New America stage, because anyone who lays a hand on me now finds themselves spitting teeth. At some point, I had a Kenny Rogers moment and started letting the Evil Empire have it for real. If someone starts shit with me, I fight back. Fair is fair.

New America's spirit lives on in America's cities and a few rural communities. And they're having success with it.

While the Far Right runs on a platform of "states' rights", the primary purpose of this today seems to be the "right" of states to run roughshod over the cities and small communities. So some cities, towns, and counties are passing their own laws to push back against the states' limitless tyranny. It's called the community rights movement. Many of the cities' new laws are against chemical trespass and other acts by corporations that spoil the environment.

Pennsylvania is the site of an unusual number of these efforts. Pittsburgh, for instance, fought back by outlawing fracking within city limits. But other places are fighting back too - from New Hampshire to New Mexico.

Why wait for the state or federal government to pass new laws that protect you, when you know they're not going to do it any time in the foreseeable future?

But the cities need to fight harder. I'd love to see cities nullify state "right-to-work" laws and create a safe harbor for workers' rights to freely bargain. The states don't get to decide what we in the cities do.

And has there been any real test yet of the cities' self-rule powers? If a state tries enforcing its will on the cities, I hope I don't see the cities folding like a cheap pair of underpants. The cities must marshal their police forces and the citizenry to arrest and jail invaders who try shoving the state's will down their throats.

The community rights movement is long overdue, and you can read more about it here...

http://www.occupy.com/article/local-lawmaking-call-community-rights-movement