Doris Haddock, aka Granny D, died Tuesday afternoon, March 9, 2010. She had turned 100 years old in late January, and celebrated with a party at the NH State House. When she was 90, she walked across the entire country for campaign finance reform (there's an HBO documentary available free on Hulu, called "Run Granny Run").
In 2004, she ran a very grassroots campaign for Senate against Sen. Judd Gregg. She lost, yes, but not before showing up the GOP for the arrogant, elitist gang it was, and Gregg for the patronizing sexist he is.
There's a website dedicated to her speeches, many of which still pertain to how politics is done in 2010.
We elect our representatives to represent our values and our needs in shaping public policy and allocating community resources. In this work, the regular citizen doesn't stand a chance if elected representatives must first go to wealthy special interests to fund their campaigns. The representation game is over before it begins.
It is nothing particularly new. But in the past, the wealthy lived among us. We shopped in their stores on Main Street and their children went to grade school with ours. We shared the same community interests and values.
We are now talking about inhumane organizations of inhuman scale and international allegiance. They care not if our main streets or our families prosper or if they blow away. We must not have these monsters influencing our community decisions. We must not allow them to provide funds for our candidates, where those funds will deny us proper representation.
I set out on my walk across the United States at a time when the leaders in Congress were saying that no one cared much about campaign finance reform. I wanted to demonstrate that I indeed cared, and I hoped to meet others along the way who cared. That is what I found.
Not very many people understood the term "campaign finance reform," but nearly all of the thousands of people I met felt and still feel that they no longer have senators and congressmen who represent their interests. They believe that wealthy special interests have taken away their opportunity for a representative democracy. And many, many people got teary-eyed or they cried outright about it. They sent me on my way with a prayer for success for all of us, and many of them --over 2,000 of them-- came to join me for the last mile in Washington, D.C. That was a joyful day, but despair, sadness and anger were the typical emotions I encountered along my way.
On that last day of my walk, we started from the graves of Arlington--rows upon rows of white stones that mark the sacrifices that have been made for the idea of freedom and self-governance. I felt those honorable spirits walk with us to the Capitol to demand an end to the political bribery that now dominates Washington. This bribery nicely calls itself campaign finance--much as a prostitute might wish to be called a personal companion. But it is what it is.
Rest in peace, Granny D. Others will carry the torch against corporate funding of campaigns.
If/when Congress passes a campaign finance law restricting coroporate-financed campaigns and contributions by foreign corporations, maybe they should call it the Granny D Public Campaign Finance Act.
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