[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 5]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 6795]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




         BREAKING THROUGH POWER: A HISTORIC CIVIC MOBILIZATION

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. JOHN B. LARSON

                             of connecticut

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, May 19, 2016

  Mr. LARSON of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, I submit the following. Ralph 
Nader is a resident of Connecticut's First District, and has long been 
a champion for social justice, as well as a crusading consumer advocate 
who has had a lasting impact on consumer rights and the American 
political milieu.

    Ralph Nader Presents--Breaking Through Power: A Historic Civic 
                              Mobilization

       Celebrating the 50th anniversary year of Ralph Nader's book 
     Unsafe at Any Speed, the Center for Study of Responsive Law 
     announces four days of civic mobilization at Constitution 
     Hall in Washington, D.C. on May 23, 24, 25 and 26, 2016. 
     Unsafe at Any Speed unleashed fresh energies and sparked the 
     creation of numerous advocacy organizations leading to major 
     consumer, environmental and worker safety protections. The 
     theme of this citizen mobilization will be elaborating ways 
     to break through power to secure long-overdue democratic 
     solutions made possible by a new muscular civic nexus between 
     local communities and Washington, D.C.
       On these four days, speakers will present innovative ideas 
     and strategies designed to take existing civic groups to 
     higher levels of effectiveness. The participants will be 
     asked to support the creation of several new organizations. 
     One such group will work to open up the commercial media, 
     which use the public airwaves free of charge, to serious 
     content. Another will facilitate action by retired military, 
     national security and diplomatic officials who want to deter 
     unconstitutional and unlawful plunges into wars that lead to 
     calamitous and costly blowbacks.
       This ``Civic Mobilization'' will involve thousands of 
     people at Constitution Hall and around the country and 
     connect long-available knowledge to long-neglected action for 
     the necessities and aspirations of people from all 
     backgrounds. Many of the presentations will feature reforms 
     and redirections for the common good enjoy Left/Right 
     support.
       Breaking Through Power: How it's Done--May 23, 2016 will 
     feature presentations by seventeen citizen advocacy groups. 
     Over decades these activists have produced amazing 
     accomplishments against powerful odds. These civic leaders 
     will demonstrate how, with modest budgets and stamina, they 
     have improved the health, safety and economic well-being of 
     the people and focused public opinion onto decision-makers 
     and opponents. Through greater visibility, broader support 
     and wider emulation, they will present their future missions 
     and show that it can be ``easier than we think'' to make 
     major changes. For the first time ever, this diverse group of 
     fighters for justice will be assembled together on stage at 
     Constitution Hall and show that the whole is greater than the 
     sum of its parts when fighting for a broader democratic 
     society. The presenters will appraise what levels of citizen 
     organization is necessary to fulfill these broadly-desired 
     missions.
       Breaking Through Power: The Media--May 24, 2016, brings 
     together also for the first time a large gathering of 
     authors, documentary filmmakers, reporters, columnists, 
     musicians, poets and editorial cartoonists. All of these 
     presenters have documented or depicted entrenched wrongdoing 
     by the corporate state or ``crony capitalism''--the cruel 
     impacts of corporate crimes and abuses, the absence of 
     governmental law enforcement, and the harmful effects of 
     concentrated corporate power.
       The speakers all seek wider audiences for their works: more 
     readers, viewers and listeners. Unfortunately the mass media 
     barons prefer to wallow in incessant advertising, hedonistic 
     entertainment, sports and mind-numbing redundancy. The result 
     is what many observers see as the stupefaction of human 
     intelligence. A major purpose of Day Two is the creation of a 
     ``Voices'' advocacy organization that puts forces in motion 
     to inject serious programming into the over-the-air and cable 
     networks under a revitalized Communications Act of 1934 and 
     generally champion a greater life of the mind on all media.
       Breaking Through Power: War--May 25, 2016 is dedicated to 
     enhancing the waging of peace over the waging of war. We will 
     assemble leading scholars having military and national 
     security backgrounds, veterans groups such as Veterans for 
     Peace, and long-time peace advocacy associations, to explain 
     how peace is more powerful than war. The speakers will 
     address the horrors of war, its huge costs here and abroad to 
     innocents and the weakening blowbacks of Empire amidst a 
     collapse of constitutional and international law. One outcome 
     of this day will be the establishment of a Secretariat 
     comprised of current and former top-level military, national 
     security and diplomatic officials who have spoken truth to 
     reckless power. If organized for quick responses, their 
     credibility, experience and wisdom can resist and prevent the 
     kind of prevaricating pressures and unilateral policies that 
     drove the unlawful destruction of Iraq, Libya and beyond.
       Breaking Through Power: Congress--May 26, 2016 will unveil 
     a new Civic Agenda to be advanced by engaged and enraged 
     citizens in each Congressional district. The Civic Agenda 
     includes recognized necessities ignored by Congress for 
     decades. The planks of this Civic Agenda will be presented by 
     nationally-recognized advocates--a veritable brain trust for 
     the well-being of present and future generations. Each 
     speaker will present the substance of each demand, which will 
     be conveyed to their members of Congress via organized 
     ``Citizen Summons'' in each Congressional District. 
     Revitalizing the people to assert their sovereignty under our 
     Constitution is critical to the kind of government, economy, 
     environment and culture that will fulfill human possibilities 
     and respect posterity.
       For more details on the week's agendas, speakers and how 
     you can attend and participate, visit 
     breakingthroughpower.org.

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