Corporations are people too

Last week cheers were heard across the nation as three more states legalized same-sex marriage. They had every right to - this was a great victory for LGBT rights. That same day Maryland (one of those three states) also passed a version of the DREAM Act which would help so many Latino immigrants to America. This is all amazing progress, but I fear that with the excitement over these two groups' struggles for equality we have all neglected one group that is perhaps more oppressed than any other.

Corporations are people too, my friend.

Think about it: what other group did the Supreme Court have to explicitly say were in fact people to even get the American people to CONSIDER recognizing them as such? And still today you'll hear bigoted liberals across the country insist they aren't! Every day vile hate speech is spewed against corporations, and nobody says a word about it. So called "ninety-nine per-centers"  would see nothing less than the imprisonment and extermination of corporations, akin to some sort of communist gulag.

Every struggle that LGBT people, Latinos, blacks, and women had to and have to go through, corporations do too. Did you know in most states corporations aren't even allowed to vote? Even that most basic freedom of democracy is denied to them! Corporations don't even have the right to a fair trial! Not that they're never tried, but for some reason their trials always come off obviously unfair. How about the right to an attorney? None of that! They have to pay for their own. Corporations can't serve on juries, they can't serve in the military, they can't receive Social Security or Medicare checks - all because they're not considered citizens!

But worst of all, corporations can't even marry the people they love. Sure, every once in a while the government makes an allowance, but only for those high-profile celebrity marriages like Lockheed and Martin's. But the vast majority of corporations find it difficult to bind themselves to others, even just to other corporations! This isn't the case in all countries - in Japan, corporations regularly have multiple marriages, to most of their employees! It is a relationship that is the true fulfillment of the human capaity for love. How dare Americans say corporations should not have this right?

So when you go to the polls next time to vote for a Gay Marriage referendum, go right ahead! That's progress at work. But remember all the other groups that continue to suffer with even fewer rights. And maybe, for once, think about treating them with the human dignity that all people deserve.

And in case you think corporations aren't people, here's a little tip for you to keep in mind:

I'm a corporation, too.

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